When the road gets tough…

I’ve found myself struggling lately – getting lost in the need to see progress, in the need to keep pushing forward. Its been a long and hard year for everyone but I felt now more than ever did I want to keep going.

It always seems to be the way when you’ve come so far. I only graduated from University last July but it feels as though that was ten years ago now. Time has been a funny thing this year. Yet I have never had so many moments of revelations, breakthroughs and growth.

But here I am struggling again. Why am I struggling? Because the path has grown uncertain, messy and I’m right in the middle of it.

Old habits rise up whispering, tempting you to go back to a familiar path where it was easier, quieter. Withdraw – retreat – run away.

Beginnings are always easy – the freshness of it all keeps you going down the path eager and hungry for each new step.

Yet the middle gets tough – you grow weary and tired. You have seen the same tree over and over again, the same hedge, the same strip of the road ahead of you.

The end is nowhere in sight yet. There is nothing to encourage you on. The end seems far away, too impossible to reach.

Perhaps it would be easier to turn around, to run off the path and find a new way.

Until you realise that someone has been walking with you all along and He is our Counsellor, our Guide when we get lost.

All we have to do is raise our voices to Him and call out…

“Lord make straight the path before me…Lord counsel me in your ways. Lord lead me on your paths of righteousness. Lord lead me in your ways. Lord you are the way!”

Perhaps you won’t see it straight away or even realise but the path before you that seemed so hard, that seemed so lonely, that seemed so painful, that seemed so empty, will become clearer, brighter, full of surprises, wonder, blessings, peace.

It won’t be easier.

It will still be hard.

But the path will be full of His light as you walk His way…