“As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.”  Henry David Thoreau

The seams of a broken road are split and divided.  A path once ‘most traveled’ has now become obliterated by the darkness of time.  Weeds infest the road.  Death overtakes it.  That which was once a path to somewhere has become a road to nowhere.

As we examine our journey through this life, are we merely laying a path for someone else to follow, or are we carving out the future with our dreams – our plans – our hopes?

To those of us who wish to find the good in things, we could look at this road as our final destination – our means of reaching it – our desire to overcome obstacles to get there.  Yet the roadblocks can often obscure the outcome.  When we become so deluded with the darkness, we’re hindering the light that leads the way.  We are standing in the way of the one ray of hope that still exists.  Even a tiny ember can reignite if it’s nurtured.

A road becomes a destination point, when it has been used and reused and used again.  The weight of a wagon, the heaviness of booted feet, the blisters that accompany them – all perils of traveling and carving a road.  Yet without those constraints, there would be no value in the journey.

We will endure pain.  We will suffer the sting of death.  We will be hindered, snagged and deterred – yet if we persevere, the road will become visible in time.  As the ground is pounded deeper down a road emerges.

God gives us His road map.  He provides the coordinates.  He has laid out a plan for our life which He has promised to be good.  Our job is to continue to follow the road.  He’s taken care of the rest.