This past Saturday the weather was beautiful, so Rika and I headed into downtown Raleigh for some coffee and window shopping at one of our favorite motorcycle shops.
As we were getting ready to leave, the road was suddenly full of joggers! It seems some kind of race was getting under way. Now, the road was blocked, and we were forced to wait it out.
At first this was a little annoying, but then we looked across the street to a nice restaurant and decided to make the best of it. We had a great lunch sitting outside on the balcony, enjoying the food and sun. Then, just as we were finishing up, the race was over and the street was open again.
We had a great ride home, taking the long way with some nice twisty roads.
I was thinking about that, how at that moment, we had a choice. Our way was blocked, so we could sit and sulk, or we could see what other opportunities presented themselves.
Life can be like that as well. We can get so focused on where we want to be, that we miss out on where we are, and perhaps what the Lord is trying to show us using another way.
Reading John 5 1-9(NIV)
"Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, "Do you want to get well?"
"Sir," the invalid replied, "I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me."
Then Jesus said to him, "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk." At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
Where would this man have been if he kept his mind on the only way he thought he could be healed? He was frustrated trying to make things happen the way he felt they should.
Ever get like that?
Is there something in your life that you feel is keeping you from where you want to go? Perhaps Jesus has another path in mind?
