I don’t remember whose idea the hike was, but I do remember being excited. We were at our district pastors’ retreat in the mountains, and a group of us youth pastors had decided to go on the adventure. I was the only girl among them, and one of the few non-athletes. Still, I loved to hike, and I thought I was in pretty good shape, so I was confident that I could keep up.I was wrong. The map labeled our trail as “strenuous,” but for some reason I had still expected it to be like the smooth, well-marked routes I was use to hiking in my favorite state parks. At times the trail connected with a paved road, and my only challenges were the steep incline and the pace of my companions. But other sections of the route were more like what my husband calls a “pig trail” – a thin, worn line in the hillside that required us to push through brush with both shoulders and pull ourselves upward with both hands.
But at some point I realized, this wasn’t a tightrope.
If you’re like me, you grew up hearing Jesus’ words about a “narrow road.” To follow Jesus, one must stay on the narrow road, not veering off to the right or the left. Since leaving the road led to danger, I began to picture it as a level path with cliffs on each side. As I got older, the cliffs got steeper, and the road narrowed. Eventually, it seemed quite appropriate to think of a tightrope when hearing Jesus’ commands.
But then I went on that hike. At some moment I realized that when Jesus was talking about a narrow road, this is what He was describing. Not a treacherous road overlooking cliffs into the abyss, but a strenuous road between boulders and brush, occasionally going straight uphill. The road was not narrow because it was one step away from disaster, but because few people had ever traveled it. It had not been worn down and smoothed out by the trampling of many feet.
Certainly a path like this is not without danger. Leaving the trail carries the risk of becoming absolutely lost, never reaching our destination nor ever finding our way back home. Briars, poison ivy, wild animals, and rocks and roots for tripping on abound. Sometimes the trail seems poorly marked, and we are uncertain that we’ve chosen the right way. Sometimes our feet hurt and our packs get heavy. Sometimes our companions travel too fast (or too slow!) for our liking. Sometimes we find ourselves on the trail alone. But it is a trail, not a tightrope. And although God has called us to a difficult task – one that requires endurance and preparation, He has not asked us to attempt a feat that only a select few are capable of. It is a normal thing, something all of us are capable of with his help. Something with a little more room for error.
Leaving the trail is still a disaster. But it’s a lot harder to do than falling off a tightrope.
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