The word for today (actually yesterday, since I'm a day behind) is "led." The actual word today is “wilderness.”
I will instruct you in the way of wisdom
and lead you along straight paths. (Proverbs 4:11)
This verse is from an early chapter of Proverbs. The speaker is a father, and he's speaking to his son, who will be the recipient of many of the proverbs to follow.
When I taught a class at my church this weekend, I told everyone (by way of introduction) that I've spent much of my adulthood in a kind of spiritual wilderness, not believing in much of anything beyond myself. I talked about how the foundation to my Christian faith had started to crumble in my teens and how it was nothing but rubble by the time I was in my early 20s.
Despite a few half-hearted attempts to "have a spiritual life" by reading lots of books, or even going to a church here and there over the past 30+ years, I remained in that wilderness until quite recently when the Holy Spirit finally said, "Enough. You are mine. Come."
After the class, a woman came up to me and said, "You had the foundation. You never lost it. Your parents had a strong foundation, and they passed it on to you. You're just rediscovering it."
I don't totally agree with her; believe me, I know what it feels like to be sitting in the ruins and rubble of something you once believed in with all your heart, soul, and mind. It feels like death ... and at the time, death seemed the only way out. What followed was a kind of cynicism-laced numbness that lasted decades.
But she was right about some things. She was right about my parents. And while they didn't always do everything right, they did instruct me in the way of wisdom. (Though I didn't always choose to listen.) She was also right about rediscovery. I'm rediscovering truth in the ruins, and a new, different, and better foundation is growing under my feet as I walk the path.
So this picture is of another parent who is teaching her children in the way of wisdom: my sister, Mu. She is leading her daughter, E-monk, and my daughter, Scout, down a (mostly) straight path on the Art Loeb Trail near Davidson River in Brevard, NC. Even though my cynical mind is seeing all kinds of prophetic implications here (Oh, no! Scout is going off the path! E-monk is tempted to follow her! Mu is doing her best to hold on!), I think it's a good first photo for this project.
I will instruct you in the way of wisdom
and lead you along straight paths. (Proverbs 4:11)
This verse is from an early chapter of Proverbs. The speaker is a father, and he's speaking to his son, who will be the recipient of many of the proverbs to follow.
When I taught a class at my church this weekend, I told everyone (by way of introduction) that I've spent much of my adulthood in a kind of spiritual wilderness, not believing in much of anything beyond myself. I talked about how the foundation to my Christian faith had started to crumble in my teens and how it was nothing but rubble by the time I was in my early 20s.
Despite a few half-hearted attempts to "have a spiritual life" by reading lots of books, or even going to a church here and there over the past 30+ years, I remained in that wilderness until quite recently when the Holy Spirit finally said, "Enough. You are mine. Come."
After the class, a woman came up to me and said, "You had the foundation. You never lost it. Your parents had a strong foundation, and they passed it on to you. You're just rediscovering it."
I don't totally agree with her; believe me, I know what it feels like to be sitting in the ruins and rubble of something you once believed in with all your heart, soul, and mind. It feels like death ... and at the time, death seemed the only way out. What followed was a kind of cynicism-laced numbness that lasted decades.
But she was right about some things. She was right about my parents. And while they didn't always do everything right, they did instruct me in the way of wisdom. (Though I didn't always choose to listen.) She was also right about rediscovery. I'm rediscovering truth in the ruins, and a new, different, and better foundation is growing under my feet as I walk the path.
So this picture is of another parent who is teaching her children in the way of wisdom: my sister, Mu. She is leading her daughter, E-monk, and my daughter, Scout, down a (mostly) straight path on the Art Loeb Trail near Davidson River in Brevard, NC. Even though my cynical mind is seeing all kinds of prophetic implications here (Oh, no! Scout is going off the path! E-monk is tempted to follow her! Mu is doing her best to hold on!), I think it's a good first photo for this project.
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