The Long Way…

The past several weeks have been challenging ones for us pretty much across the entire arena of life. As you can see from the content of this blog, our family is involved in a relatively significant life transition…a transition which is encompassing to every facet of our lives. On top of that, we have the normal pressures of life…two delightful, but very energetic boys, a relatively consuming full-time job, the emotional rollercoaster of the current real estate market, and the list goes on and on. I’m sure you feel the same sometimes: overwhelmed, frenetic, generally just ticked off. There have been many times in the past months when I’ve really asked that the Lord just cut me a little slack…those times when everything is going wrong, and I feel like I just need one thing to go right. After all, most of the stress in our life right now is directly derived from the fact that we’re seeking to follow His guidance in our lives. It stands to reason that as that is the case, He will do His part to meet us in the middle and to make the process as painless and as efficient as possible, right? That’s a big negative.

The reality is that when following the Lord, the path that He chooses to take us on is rarely the one of least resistance. In fact, I think you could make a strong Scriptural case that contrary to our American Church culture, the way of the Lord is rarely the one  that we would deem to be “efficient” or “cost-effective”. Indeed, the Lord more times than not chooses to take His children the un-efficient and oftentimes uncertain “long way.”

Exodus 13 gives us one of the clearest Biblical examples of this truth. We join the Exodus story in chapter 13 as the Israelites are celebrating a moment of long-awaited victory over the Egyptian captors. As chapter 12 closed, we see that the Lord has enacted His final plague on the people of Egypt, striking down all of their firstborn sons, while sparing the sons of the children of the Israel. Pharaoh, overwhelmed by the power of God, releases the Israelite people to Moses’ care, and 600,000 men and their families set out as the newly freed people of God, enroute to their Promised Land…the one flowing with milk and honey. After 430 years of serving the Egyptian throne, and after serving as witnesses to God’s terrifying, but awe-inspiring intervention of history on their behalf, the children of God set out to fulfill their destiny as His people.Verse 17 of this passage, however is the telling verse. Moses writes,

“When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near. For God said, ‘Lest the people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt.’ But God led the people around by the way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea.”

In other words, after years of oppression and the long-awaited promise of relief and the fulfillment of their destiny, the children of Israel did not get to the Promised Land via the cost-efficient, quickest route. Nor was it the route of least resistance. As any map of the Exodus will show you, the quickest easiest route was for the Israelites to basically hug the coastline of the Mediterranean Sea all the way up to Canaan. However, the actual route of the Exodus was far, far from efficient and easy. It was indeed the extremely “long way.” Fascinating, isn’t it? While most of us would agree that the Lord certainly has the right to take us the “long way” as it were, when we stop and think about it, many of us struggle to understand why the heck He would take the Israelites on such a round-about route to Canaan. It makes no sense to our efficiency-sensitive mindsets. Scripture, however, tells us that the Lord knew that the people would change their minds and return to Egypt if they were forced into battle with the Philistines who ruled the territory of the “short way.”

For those of you who, like myself, are currently being taken the “long way,” take heart. The Lord is indeed guiding your path and moving you forward, even in the moments where you feel lost , hot, and tired. Perhaps He is taking you to a majestic out-of-the way mountain, where He can reveal His glory in awe-inspiring, life-changing ways. Perhaps He is protecting you from temptations that you are not yet equipped to resist. Perhaps He is putting you in a position to more clearly see Him working both in your life and in the lives of the people around you.

For the people of Israel, surely there were those amongst them that questioned the need to traverse deserts and seas and rivers and eat manna and quail for many, many more days than was necessary. Surely there were days when the miraculous got mundane and they were simply ready to “get there,” that is, to live out their calling. Surely there were days that they forgot that their calling as children of God had nothing to do with the place where they resided, and instead had everything to do with their character in the journey.

Likewise, we do well…I do well, to remember that the trials and challenges of the “long way” are here to build endurance and character in me, which gives birth to true hope (Romans 5.4). I would do well to remember that the salvation and redemption afforded to me by Christ is never mundane and is never secondary to whatever task or destiny I perceive the Lord has called me to. Finally, I would do well to remember that it is not for ministry or even for mission that I was made, but rather, I was made to reflect His glory in all aspects of the journey. If He chooses to take me the “long way” to further refine and polish that reflection, then my response should be to praise the name of Jesus, to the glory of God the Father…