The Path Less Travelled.

I was on holiday once in Wales and I got the chance to visit the old castle at Rhyl on the north coast. There wasn’t much in the town itself. It was a good enough seaside town, as good as any other seaside town anywhere else. But it had an old castle. And since I love exploring old castles and cathedrals I took myself off a wander. The castle was being worked on to prepare for a medieval re-enactment festival of some sort and I distinctly remember the jousting stalls being set out in place. The whole place was all very “Narnian” even before Narnia became as well-known as it is today.

I moved away from the work areas and since the castle is built on the side of a hill I went upwards to the older parts of the castle and explored further. Pretty soon I was disoriented. The castle walls and rooms had given way to more open structures and foliage had started to grow over it.

I was lost.

I was standing there on this overgrown pathway wondering which way to go. I couldn’t go back as part of the journey to here involved climbing up a gravel scree slope. I didn’t fancy scrabbling down that again.

All of a sudden a Bible verse came to my memory. Don’t ask me why. Or how. Or where from. It was obviously one that I had read at some time before. But I couldn’t even remember reading it. But the verse was there. Front and foremost in my mind.

It is found in the book of Jeremiah Ch 6:16 and it reads “Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein…”

I turned and peered into the undergrowth and saw a muddy track totally overgrown from above. I pushed through the leaves and found myself at the top of an old set of steps leading back downwards. So, I made the decision that going downwards was the better option.

When I got to the bottom of the stone steps lo and behold I met a man. A workman. He was setting up some barriers for a jousting tournament in the area that I had just walked into earlier. He looked at me in surprise and then turned and looked at the archway at the other end of the arena that I had just walked through some 20-30 minutes earlier.

“How did you get here?” he asked. “I haven’t a clue”, I replied. “I walked up there and turned through some archways, walked along some passageways, and pushed through some hedges, came down some stone steps and ended up here”. “I didn’t even know that there was a pathway there”, he said. I just journeyed on and went to catch up with my friends.

This is a shallow and twee little example of something that happened to me a long time ago. But the lesson was to come back to me in later years when my life took a turn along a more dark and sinister route.

I had got myself into a situation which wasn’t good. It wasn’t good for me. It wasn’t good for others around me. And people who were with me were starting to be affected.

I had to make a drastic change. I’d had the opportunity in years previous to make the change but I didn’t make it.  But, I never took it.….because it was too hard. And I just muddled along.

One day the incident at Rhyl Castle came back to my mind. And so did the Bible verse. “Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein…”.

The change I made was so drastic that people were stunned at what was happening. And over the next few years I changed everything about myself. It was hard. Very hard. I needed help. A lot of help. But I walked the difficult path. And eventually I started to see the signs of brighter days ahead. I started to smile more. I started to sing some choruses again. I started to read the better Bible passages about blessings instead of the heavier books of The Psalms, Job and Lamentations.

It took time. It took effort. But eventually with God’s guidance I came through. And life was better than it had been for some time.

And God can help you make a change too. Is there something that you’re not happy with in your life or circumstances? God can help you change it. Just stand up and say, “Right Lord. You and me need to sort this out together”. Then, when you make the first step, the next step will come to you. And in time you will find yourself changing.

Perhaps you will even find yourself changing into what God always meant for you to be in the first place.

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