A Little Help from My Friends
You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.
“Make level paths for your feet.”
Proverbs 4:26, New International Version
My young grandson seems to be asking, “Did you check to make sure the new deck is level? Remember the Proverb Gramps!”
The ancient Teacher has some good advice for modern-day disciples of the Lord. “Make level paths for your feet.” Eugene Peterson, in The Message, paraphrases the verse this way: “Watch your step, and the road will stretch out smooth before you.” It almost sounds like an Irish blessing!
Is it possible to make level paths out of life’s sloped, knotted root, boulder-strewn, hill-and-valley days? In a word, ‘Yes.’ In a Word—Jesus. Jesus is the level Way. Jesus is the wilderness Word that calms the frightened voice within us. He is the Word spoken in the darkness of death’s relentless pursuit, lightening our souls with the Spirit’s whisper: ‘You are a child of the heavenly Father. You are the object of God’s own heart.’
The month of May will find me leveling the dirt in new raised beds for raspberries and vegetables. Such enjoyable work will speak to me, in sight of the deck where my grandson offered a level, of the rich soil that is our Lord. He is the level way. His the Spirit of wisdom that enables us to look at life and to discern the level way from the dangerous. Oh yes, Brothers and Sisters.
Jesus is the level voice of our God, speaking to us of God’s love, his grace, his humbling mercy. Listen! Read! The Word is calling. For me, to read the Psalms is a leveling experience. God speaks, the wonder of his Word stills my soul and I can breathe deeply in the centered abode of Christ’s dwelling place in my heart. The beating heart levels off. Through the Spirit’s blessing the heart beats with the rhythm of Christ’s own heart of love.
What spiritual exercises work for you to take you to that ‘leveling place’ where God speaks, becalms, embraces you anew? Seek them out today. Make a level path for your feet.
Text and picture, copyright Don Schatz
