A few weeks ago we began a series titled the Principle of the Path and we memorized this verse. The prudent see danger and seek refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it. Once more time. Just fake it if you don’t know it.

The prudent see danger and seek refuge, but he simple keep going and suffer for it.

We’ve been talking in this series about the principle of the path. And the path principle says that Direction determines destination. And we know that when we get in our car and we know that when we go hiking – that the direction you take will determine your destination, but when it comes to our marriages, our relationships, our finances, who we date, how we handle our professions, we forget this principle or we don’t realize this principle applies.

Most of us have some sort of dream. We think to ourselves, I want this kind of marriage or this kind of retirement. We say I want to marry this kind of man, or that kind of woman, or I want to be this kind of person, or have this kind of profession and then we start down a path that is going in a different direction and when we get to that destination, we say, “Oh my! How did I get here, because I wanted to go there? What went wrong?” What went wrong is, it’s the principle of the path. Every path has a destination and you got on the wrong path. Direction, not intention, determines destination.

Several weeks back we talked about praying for wisdom on a regular basis, saying, “ God help me to see when I’m on the wrong path early on, so that I don’t waste my days, and waste my life on the wrong path, and God give me the wisdom to see the need for change and the courage to do it.

You and I know that whatever I do today has ramifications for tomorrow, right. I studied hard for the test on Tuesday and took the test on Wednesday and aced it. I didn’t study for the test on Tuesday – just blew it off, and I failed the test on Wednesday. Those are the easy ones. Hopefully we all understand that. The problem with the principle of the path is that what you do in your twenties affects what’s going to happen to you in your 30’s doesn’t it. The financial path that you’re on earlier in life affects how you retire or whether you retire. The path that you take in raising your kids early on, affects how your kids will turn out later.

Unfortunately we don’t know the outcome of the decisions that we made until it’s really too late. We can’t go back and capture those years again. We can’t go back and unmake those bad decisions. So choosing the correct path, whether it’s financially or relationally, or who you date, or how you live is critical to how your life turns out. The problem is that we don’t have all the information. The problem is we can’t see our future, yet direction determines destination, so what do you do?

This is what we’ve been talking about.

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10-11-09 The Story of Jonah – Go!

I want to start off by asking our youth a question. Has there ever a time when your parents asked you to do something that you didn’t want to do? That’s never happened has it? Why do you think they do that? I heard from a reliable source that all parents sign an agreement to work together to make their kid’s lives unpleasant. They just do that because that’s the kind of people that they are, right?

Parents, has there ever been a time when you asked your kids to do something, and you knew it was for their own good, but you also knew that you were going to catch flack for it? You knew even before you asked your children to do something that they were going to gripe and complain and if they could, they would even try and avoid doing it if they thought they could get away with it. Have you ever had that happen before?

Why do you still do it then? You know that there’s going to be complaining and carrying on. You know it’s going to be rough. You know they don’t understand why they need to do it, and so they’re going to try and get out of it, so why do you keep going? Why do you still ask them to do it?

You know that they’re not going to do the job as well as you would anyhow. You know that they’re hearts are not going to be in it, so they’re going to procrastinate and you might even have to ground them for not doing it, so why ask them to do it at all. I mean come on, why do you follow through when it would be easier and probably even done better if you just did it yourself. Why do you do that?

It’s because it teaches them something doesn’t it. We ask our kids to do things that they don’t understand right now, but by doing those things, some day they will have learned something very valuable about life, won’t they? Kid’s, you don’t understand it right now, but your parents ask you to do things around the house that you may hate to do, but they ask you to do those things because it teaches you valuable things about life that are necessary as you move toward becoming an adult. You don’t know it yet, but the reason that your parents ask you to do things that you don’t like to do is because . . .they love you. As twisted as it may seem and though it may seem illogical and it doesn’t make any sense to you right now, the reason why your parents ask you to do things that you don’t want to do is because they love you.

If you are a Christian, if you are a follower of Christ, then you are a child of God and the same thing that is true for our children is true for us. God asks us to do things that don’t make sense to us because our perspective is too small. Our worldview and our understanding of the world is so small that we have a hard time understanding why God asks us to do things and to make matters worse, God asks us to do things that we don’t like to do, and so we avoid those things like the plague, just like our kids. Read the rest of this entry »