Have you lost your way?

Psalm 119:105 " Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path"

As a child we most likely all remember reading the story of "Hansel & Gretel." I grew up with that strange old German classic tale as well as read it to my own Preschool class when I was a teacher. The notion of the children wandering through the forest lost and scared they use the one resource they have from a small lunch they packed, that being a slice of bread. Hansel had not eaten his bread on their journey, but had thought to leave small breadcrumbs as a trail as he walked, he dropped a breadcrumb all along his path to mark his way. We all know the part of the tale that messed things up for Hansel's plan of navigation; he forgot to take into consideration that there could be hungry little birds that lived in the forest. The whole way that the boy was making a mark for their return, the birds snuck up behind them and eat the bread crumbs that now lead the children to be lost. 

How many times in life do you have a smart plan to return in case our future plans don't work out? We make a plan and we have every intention of looking for those 'bread crumbs' behind us to remember how to get back but we discover when we look for that path to navigate us back to where we came from, we can't find our way. There are times when I have been on a hike and I look for 'cues' and 'signs' to get me back on the path I first was on, but I can't seem to find those signs and I have to go to other means, or sometimes you have to 'make a new path' to use logic and common sense to find the course to your destination. This is how life is as well. I feel we can get too caught up in where we came from and searching for signs to rely on, that we lose discernment and we forget to rely on the Holy Spirit for guidance and instead we make foolish choices along the way. The bible clearly and wonderfully says to 'Trust in the Lord with all your heart, leaning not on our "own" understanding, but in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths." I recently heard a quote that I love that relates, "Don't try to save the past from the future, rather fight to save the future from the past." The goal in life should be to keep moving forward, and if you lose your way and can't find that path you started on, trust and rely on the Holy Spirit and his word and his next plan for you, don't worry or fear if the bread crumbs you left to guide you back are gone, but instead look to the future and make it work for you and trust in God's plan and leading you.

Psalm 143:8 " Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul"