Teach Me Your Way Oh Lord

I live just off of 27th street here in this portion of Miami known as Coconut Grove.  When you move to a new location, you tend to hang onto the one or two streets you know and don't want to veer off course for fear you'll get lost.  There is a feeling of safety on familiar streets - not that I fear being in danger but because everything is so new, my venturing out right now is a bit intrepid.

So today, I was very happy to take my children to a school just 2-1/2 miles down 27th.  On the way back, I was forced to take 22nd street.  It parallels 27th and takes me to US highway 1.  These are the two roads I know so far - 27th and US highway 1.  If I turn right on US 1, it'll take me back to 27 and then I know where home is from there.  My safety net.

The 1st time I took the kids to school and was headed home on 22, I got in the turn lane to take my safety US highway 1 and noticed that if I continued on 22 and veered off my known path, the road looked lush and pretty and it beckoned to me to come and explore.  But I was already in the turn lane so I went my known way home.

It was at that moment that I recalled the first part of the verse in Psalm 86:11 "Teach me your way O Lord and I will walk in your truth.."  We are such creatures of habit.  John Steinbeck said "It's a hard thing to leave any deeply routine life, even if you hate it". God's ways take us down paths that are quite unusual and many times they take us out of our comfort zones.  Here I am, living in Miami with my family.  I would have never moved here if it was left to my comfort-pleasing self.  I'd have stayed in my safety net.  But look at what happened when we heard God speak, teaching us His ways.  I'm in a city that I would never have dreamed of living in.  It's beautiful here.  It is a big city full of traffic and cars that beep at you as soon as the light turns for a millisecond.  Most everyone around me is from a Latin American country and plain white folk are scarce.  But God is good to teach us His ways long before we got here and is also teaching us as we go.  His ways hold truth.  He and His ways are paths of truth.  Psalm 119 is full of verses about His ways, His commands, His statutes, His paths.  

When we become teachable by God and learn His ways, we will walk in His truth.  We will find ourselves in new territory.  This new territory of walking in His truth has a transition period as the old man dies and the new creation in Christ is emerging.  He gives so much grace in these times.  He truly is our present help in time of need....each one as they come.

So don't be afraid.  When God directs you down a new path, know that you will walk.  You will walk and not faint or be faint in heart.  Wait on Him and trust His way.  Go there.  You'll be amazed at what you find on His journey.