Treading Lightly...

On this journey of faith we all travel (even if we don't acknowledge "faith" as it is, I believe we all still walk the path together) the potential for danger and peril abound. There is no small number of things we can do to get off path and find danger in short order. The path is narrow, but it is well lit (Ps. 119:105). However, darkness does loom precariously close to the path's edge. Staying "in the middle" of the path isn't always an easy task.

Having done my fair share of hiking and even more off-road motorcycle and mountain bike riding, I appreciate the value of "treading lightly" (staying on the designated trail). If you spend much time in nature, you will consistently find evidence of people "cutting" the trail. They'll jump switchbacks, swerve wider and wider through the turns and cut back the radius of the turn deeper and deeper into the preserve. If the ground is wet, those scars can remain for months, even years. Blazing these kinds of trails adversely affects drainage and accelerates soil erosion. Things get messy in a hurry and the result leaves unsightly stuff for travelers coming behind.

On the journeyed path of faith, a similar dynamic exists. We "jump switchbacks" on life's trail and the result is real damage. What concerns me is how there have been times in my life when I've actually cared more for nature trails than I did for my own spiritual path and for those who would travel after me. Spiritual myopia can easily distort our perceptions and direction. Occasional trail markers and spiritual warning signs are there, but we neglect them or disregarded them entirely. I know I certainly have.

One "trail" marker stands Supreme. The biblical writer of a letter to a group of Jewish believers in Jesus makes a sobering statement about folks who deliberately stray off the path of right living after they have received the knowledge of how to live on the path. The sacrifice for that knowledge that is intended to bring life necessarily gives way to a fearful expectation of judgment and raging fire that consumes enemies of God (Heb. 10:26-27). A very sobering and alarming word picture, to be sure.

The author goes on to instruct that, before Jesus came and died for the "trail cutting" of humanity, if people rejected the law before Him they would die without mercy at the witness of two or three witnesses. But how much more severely would a man deserve to be punished who has "trampled the Son of God under foot" and has treated the blood of sacrifice as unholy and insulted the Spirit of grace (Heb. 10:29). At this understanding, I have to pull over to the side of the trail, in a cold sweat, and catch my breath.

I am guilty of "cutting trails" and I can't take those things back. Switchbacks were jumped, the scars are there and I can only try to live life back in the middle of the trail, now having been brought to my senses, broken and moved to repentance. Sorrow doesn't cover the damage, it only reflects the weight of the offense. How many times could someone say they are sorry to make the pain go away? We can't say I'm sorry enough. Only one thing makes the offense go away, namely, the blood of the perfect Savior, Jesus Christ.

The letter writer to those Jewish Christians delivers hope to them and to us saying, "don't throw away your confidence... persevere... we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved" (Heb. 10:39).

Now, as I put one foot in front of the other on life's trail, I'm being very careful about where I plant my next step. I'm resolved to not flirt with the edges, but stay in the middle of the path. Some godly fellow travelers are committed to helping me stay there. We journey together, and offer encouragement and a hand when any of us get tired or discouraged. A band of brothers staying on the trail and constantly being reminded of what is truly at stake when we stray off the path. To trample the Son of God underfoot should remind us all that we must "tread lightly" on the trail of life and tread not on the Savior who makes the pathway clear. We must journey onward, continuing to take each step with great care.

Peace to you, on your journey...