The Fork

...choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve....but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD. Joshua 24:15

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths. Proverbs 3:5-6

My experience as a lapsed hill walker, is that it happens eventually, and can be troubling. We reach a fork in the road, and initially we don’t know which way to turn. The fork doesn’t have to be a straight choice between good and bad. In someways that would be easier, but it can be a decision between two good choices, one better than the other, and you reach this place because you are undecided and unsettled. It can be the same in our spiritual journey. We have to choose, just like Joshua. A decision is needed, and it will affect you, but also your ‘house’. In Joshua’s case, that was his family, but maybe this time it’s another kind of ‘family’, and that’s what makes the fork in the road so difficult. A crossroads suggests a choice of at least three directions, but a fork means only one choice. Keep going the way you are, or take a new way.

From the verse in Proverbs, the direction will become clearer from trusting, leaning, acknowledging and letting God direct. Easier now? No, I didn’t think so, because this particular fork probably has the road you already know you should be on, and it means leaving the safe and familiar place where you are standing. I remember a preacher saying that a diver can stand on the diving board, but it’s only when his feet are in the air, that the dive can begin. It’s obvious, but has to be acknowledged.

It’s entirely possible that you or I have been standing at this same fork for a while, and can’t or won’t take that first step on the road you know you should be on. No amount of debating it, worrying about it, or further praying will make it better. You know in your heart what to do, and God has already made it clear, but you don’t have the nerve. Well not yet, but rest assured of this truth, the same fork in the road will still be there, and is not going away. If you or I don’t face up to it now, we will have to face it later on. Meantime, we mark time, and go nowhere, physically, emotionally, and even spiritually. I think we will all agree, this is not a good fork in the road to be stalled.