Finding the Will of God–or–Not Getting Lost in the Forest

Last December my family and I moved to North Vancouver, to a house surrounded by trees on the shoulder of Mount Seymour. Settlement ends near our home and gives way to forests that include long trails up and down the mountainsides and valleys of this beautiful region.

I have taken to hiking these trails, and the other day I took a new one. I almost got lost, and instead came upon a fresh illustration of the guidance of God.

The trail started clearly and broadly enough, but after ten minutes, as I started down a hillside toward Seymour Creek and eventually home, the trail got smaller and smaller. Suddenly, as I rounded a bend, it disappeared. Actually, it didn’t so much disappear as become indistinguishable from several other possible paths, identically lined with pine and spruce needles. I began to feel more than a little worried, not least because I had not seen another person for half an hour or more.

God expects us to follow the trails of normal life without prompting and without special assistance. He has given us the ability to see the trail and to follow it. And much of our lives is just like that sort of hike: clearly marked-out paths of duties, opportunities, relationships, talents, limitations, joys, and challenges. We don’t need any big revelation about what we’re supposed to do. Instead, we need energy and faith and encouragement and perservance to do it.

But now I was lost. …