Next to rainstorms, glossy tiled sidewalks, and rushing, my least favorite combination of circumstances involves incredibly hot and humid weather and the woods, because along with those come swarms of flying insects. Naturally, that would be exactly where God would call me to be so that I could spend some time with Him today.
Looking back, my experience in the woods this afternoon bears more in common with my experiences with slippery tile and crossing incredibly wide avenues than one would think at first glance. It was near impossible to focus on where the trail was taking me while swatting away bugs, trying to be mindful of puddles, mud pits, fallen trees, and exposed roots, and attempting to wipe away the drips of sweat from my brow before they fell into my eyes.
To boot, my physical surroundings barely qualified as a distraction; the cyclone of thoughts reeling in my mind held that prize. I hiked with a vengeance, frustrated that I was experiencing a swirling frenzy of thoughts instead of the very thing I came for.
In the last loop of the nearly five-mile trail, I surrendered my mind and began to pray, asking God to speak. Almost immediately, He reminded me of something that has surfaced frequently in my life over the last few weeks: the narrow path. Usually when He does this, I praise Him and acknowledge what He has brought to mind, and seek more of it. This was no different.
Until it was.
Immediately after I began to zero in on Him, a snake slithered right in front of my toes, startling me. My heart raced and I thanked Heaven I didn’t step on him, taking deep breaths to return to my previous level of zen. I left my angst behind me and on my tenth step post-unexpected encounter, the revelation hit:
I was in the very place God called me to be in that moment doing precisely what He had asked me to do when along came a serpent. His presence startled me, jolted my thoughts away from Jesus, stopped me dead in my tracks, and required me to breathe and calm down - something that is not required of me in the presence of the Lord - before proceeding.
My confidence returned with each literal and figurative step that I took into this revelation. I resolved to turn back to photograph the snake, wanting to preserve the words with a visual. But when I arrived at the meeting place, the snake was nowhere to be found. I stood silently as my disappointment collided with God’s voice. “What are you doing? You were going the way you were supposed to be going. You were doing what you were supposed to be doing. The enemy came and distracted you, and you turned around and went to go find him!”
He didn’t need to say anything else to me; He was right. And so with one last deep breath, I did an about-face and returned to the Way, leaving the fear the enemy taunted me with in my wake.
I allow this to happen sometimes. I take my eyes away from where they should be fixed and allow my heart to be distracted by the smoke and mirrors the enemy famously uses to deter us. If I am not careful, if I do not turn back to Jesus and seek Him, I will not only remain distracted but I will also remain in the way of God’s grace and His ability to heal me from whatever it was that the enemy threw at me.
In this case, fear.