Why Isn't Your Path with God a Straight Line?

My horse-loving friend Jaime sent me a beautiful meditation on curves and the way of the world.

I wonder why we assume it’s because we don’t hear “perfectly” like it’s “our fault” that we didn’t begin the journey and make a beeline for a destination. It makes sense somehow in human terms—we do like to remember about straight lines being the shortest distance.

But why do we think that the shortest distance would have been “hearing perfectly God’s best plan”?

The created natural world is full of arcing lines. While it’s true that horses will approach a thing of interest directly on occasion, their natural way is to make some curving wandering lines—while they graze along the way—toward a destination. And while we can approach a horse straight on, that is going to be the least effective because of the pressure they feel when people approach with focused direction.

As high chain predators, we get a destination in mind and head straight for it—but when we do that we block out everything happening around us.

Maybe it’s in the way God gets us moving a direction by calling us to head “that way” and then as we go we see the direct line might curve or even change. I don’t think God wastes anything.

What am I so afraid of?

I suspect that God isn’t nearly as concerned with efficiency and speed as we are. I don’t think he worries about running out of time to get our life purpose for his kingdom fulfilled … I think his process is a mystery but it is also perfect—even if we aren’t.

Did Mary and Joseph get it “imperfect” when they showed up and only found a dirt floor cave barn? I think they must have wondered. I would.

My current barn area is currently slimed in mud all around it from a week of rain and heavy animal high traffic zones. The inside is a dirt floor and everything always has a layer of dust. The owners’ barn up the hill has shiny concrete floors and rubber mats. They have gravel in high traffic areas. They are not ankle deep in mud with a layer of dust all the time.

Yesterday I was so tired of being covered in mud. I asked God about it. Father, I’m your daughter and I would think you can do better than this!? Someday, Father, I would love to have a barn without a dirt floor, and I dream of not slipping around in mud during the wet seasons….

And he gently reminded me so that the truth of it became more real than ever in that moment: I brought something very special into the world through a dirt floor barn once. I can do it again.

So beautiful!

Thank you, Jesus!

They shall give him the name Emmanuel, which means “God with us,”

Amy Joy

P.S. One of the most curving stories in the Bible is that of Esther and Mordecai. While we love Daniel because he refused the wine from the king’s table, so dedicated to following his God, we find Esther in the king’s court, inviting her husband to a drinking party!

Not a straight-line, clear request, but a curving intensity.

Beautiful. Unexpected.

I invite you to get a copy of Righting of Wrongs.