When God leads instead of lifts…

My son Sammy is a hoot. He keeps us laughing. Non-stop.  Whether he’s giving it all he’s got in a team sport, or just hanging out with his family, there is one word that is used most consistently to describe him:  Joy. Due to some physical and emotional trauma during his first few years of life, however, he’s got some quirks that keep us scratching our heads (and sometimes chuckling).  Like his primal need to beat things (not people or animals!). On any given day you can find him in the yard thrashing a tree with a baseball bat.  (Sorry, his sensory needs come before my environmental concerns…).

 

He also takes everything literally.  Like, EVERYTHING.  If I congratulate him for doing something well by saying, “Sam, you’re on FIRE!!!” He will inevitably respond with, “NoI’m not.”  We’ve started calling him Drax (from Guardians of the Galaxy).

He also has trouble with expressive speech. The kids are often amazed at my ability to understand what he MEANS to say.  They call me his “interpreter”, because when he says something like “Can I wear my socks on the zip-line?”  I respond with “nope, no shoes allowed on the trampoline.”  I know what he means when he accidentally names something in the same word family.  It’s like a super-power I have.

 

But back to Sam. Perhaps one of his most notable qualities is his ability to internally process travel directions. I first observed it when he was only 4 and could barely speak English.  We had just moved to a new city and state, yet when I missed a turn, he called out “Mommy!  You go THAT way!”.  And it’s never failed, I have counted on him ever since to let me know how to get somewhere, many times going against my own opinion.  We call him our “GPS” – Global Positioning Sam.  I will follow him blindly, and many times do.

 

That thought gave me a fresh perspective on Psalm 61:2 this morning.  The Psalmist is calling out to God in a desperate situation, void of strength, and he pleads, “Lead me to a rock that is high above me.”  I noticed that he didn’t say “PLACE me on the rock”.  That would have been a lot easier, less time-consuming and certainly more comfortable.  But he says “LEAD me there.”  I realized that so often I want God to just “PUT ME THERE” – get me out of this mess and set me on that high place of strength and refuge.

 

 But sometimes God chooses to LEAD me up, rather than just LIFT me out. 

So that my own feet experience the persistence and discipline of following Him up the mountain.  Not only strengthening me in the present, as I exert the spiritual muscles of faith, trust and submission, but hopefully the “muscle memory” kicks in the next time I find my troubled heart on this same trail.

And just like I trust Sam in matters of the “trip”, getting me where I want to go in the most efficient way, I want to trust God in matters of the “trial” – that he’s getting me where I need to go in the most effective way possible.  And like Sammy’s keen sense of direction, I pray God makes me well aware of my spiritual surroundings as I follow Him so that I recognize with clarity the sovereignty of God when I pass this way again!