Ethan was struggling mightily.  There was no other way to describe the situation; things seemed bleak at best.  His mind was emotionally distraught; his heart spiritually tumultuous.  His days were spent in a mental fog; his nights in unrest.

Over and over he cried out to the Lord, decrying the circumstances; demanding answers; begging God for help.  He poured over the Scriptures, searching for solutions.  Yet his struggle continued.  He was immersed in one of life’s dark valleys, at a loss on how to ascend to the sunshine of the heights yet pleading for God to lift him there.

Tossing and turning one night in another fitful and largely futile attempt to reach the state of slumber, his sheer exhaustion finally dragged him into a deep sleep.  That’s when the Lord Jesus made his appearance.

It was more than the wild randomness and fluffy illogicity of a dream.  Even in his state of deep slumber, Ethan realized that somehow it was real – all real.  Jesus was real, and everything that transpired with Jesus was real.

They stood over an ornate table, he and Jesus, looking down at what appeared to be a sort of topographical map with the geographic details laid out in contoured formations.  (Kind of like one might see in some national parks, the features and elevations of the park graphically displayed.)  Ethan intuitively recognized already at a glance that this was no normal map.  The landscape elicited the comfort of familiarity and, simultaneously, the discomfort of a different view of the familiar.

Ethan’s mind struggled to grasp what he was seeing.  Then he saw the gold script inset into the top of the topographic table: Your Life Plan.  He gasped as it all became clear.  He was gazing down at a map of his life!

With wide eyes and gaping mouth, he raised his view to Jesus.  The Lord was watching him intently, his hands clasped behind his back, his eyes twinkling and a small smile settled on his bearded face.  “Look closer, Ethan,” Jesus suggested quietly.

So Ethan did.

There below him was blazed a golden line that wiggled its way across the table.  Sometimes the line continued straight and true; but usually it zig-zagged either to the right or to the left of the general direction of the path.

Ethan traced the path back to its beginning.  He noticed the line originated at an X and initially was gray.  He looked up to Jesus questioningly.  “That was when you were conceived” Jesus told him.  Tracing the line further, he noticed another X, this time in gold.  “That was when God’s grace brought you to faith and when I began journeying with you.”  Ethan was stunned.

Then he noticed that the gold line became brighter and more pronounced further along the way.  “As I grew older, smarter and stronger?” he asked.

“No, Ethan.  As you grew stronger in your faith through time in my Word,” Jesus answered.  “Physical strength, mental capacity and earthly accomplishments are unimportant on this map.”  Ethan nodded, the extreme importance of feeding one’s faith starkly revealed.  Jesus continued.  “Sadly, for some their line becomes gold at one point but eventually returns to gray.  For others, their line remains gray their entire lives.”

Jesus moved beside Ethan and wrapped his arm around his shoulder. “But that is not what I brought you here to see.  Look closer still.”

Ethan traced his lifeline with his finger.  The path not only zig-zagged back and forth, but it undulated up and down, climbing up rises and descending back down again – sometimes journeying at length in the heights; sometimes tarrying in the valleys.  “What do you make of the many variations, Ethan?”

Ethan hesitated uncomfortably.  Finally, he whispered in shame, “It seems I’ve often wandered off your path.”

“Yes, well, you do have a sinful nature,” the Lord replied.  “But look even closer at some of those side trips.  Especially some of the longer ones.  What do you see?”

Ethan leaned closer to the golden trail, focusing especially on some of the more extreme horizontal wanderings.  “My gold line was growing dimmer.”  He gasped and drew himself nearer still.  “But there’s golden barricades at the end of those lines!”  He looked back to the Lord.  “Does that mean what I think it does?”

Jesus smiled warmly.  “Yes, Ethan.  Your faith was growing weaker as you wandered your own way, but I blocked you from wandering farther from my path.”  The Lord gestured over the table.  “Now project your path if you had continued down some of those long detours.”

Ethan found some of the longer ones and traced their ultimate destination.  He shuddered.  “They end in destruction!  Spiritual starvation!  Steep cliffs to fall over!  Deep waters to drown in!  Spiritual death!  O, Lord, you preserved me!”

“Yes, Ethan.  Sometimes I pushed you; sometimes I pulled you.  Sometimes I knocked you over.  Sometimes I whispered in your ear through various methods.  Whatever it took to redirect you spiritually.  I love you and want you to be with me forever.”

Jesus eyes shimmered, the tears threatening to escape.  “Sadly, some refuse to listen even to me.  They insist on climbing over my barricades.  It never ends well for them.  But again, that is not my reason for bringing you here.”

The Lord looked intently at Ethan.  “I know you are extremely discouraged right now, so I will give you a special insight.  Put your finger again at the beginning of your life path and trace it slowly.”

Ethan tentatively lowered his index finger to the first X and slid it forward.  The realizations began bombarding him – blessings upon blessings upon blessings all along the path, in both the “good times” and the bad, in the pain and the pleasure.  Some he had recognized at the time; most had been unnoticed and unnoted.  New lessons learned and new insights gained. Experiences that had made him “richer” in a multitude of ways.  And astoundingly, some of the greatest blessings of all had come through the most difficult times in his life!

The magnitude of God’s unending faithfulness and goodness overwhelmed Ethan.  He was speechless.

Once again Jesus pointed to the map.  “Find the last X, Ethan”

He did.  It was easy enough to locate near the end of the line.  “Is this my death, Lord?

“No, Ethan, that is not displayed on this map for you to see.  Look closely at that final X.”

The X was in a deep, dark valley.  And the realization struck Ethan; this was where he was right now in his life!  It was one of the deepest depressions on the entire map.  He couldn’t speak.  Once again he looked back at Jesus.

Again the words came.  “Look closer, Ethan.”

Ethan dropped his eyes to the final X.  He noticed two things: his gold faith-line was brighter here than anywhere else on the map, and he noticed that beyond the X the path began to climb again.

It happened so suddenly he couldn’t have hoped to quell it; Ethan began to sob uncontrollably.  Jesus moved even closer and wrapped both his arms around him, embracing him tightly.  “Yes, Ethan, you are stronger spiritually now than you have ever been.  Which is why I have led you to this place.  You needed to rely on me and my promises more.  This valley has helped you do that.”  Jesus paused, then continued.  “And yes, Ethan, I will lead you back out of it in due time.”

Jesus words came quietly and lovingly.  “I have guided you your entire life, Ethan, and I will guide you home to me one day.  Trust me, Ethan.  Trust me.  I’m handling your life plan.”  And Jesus kissed his forehead.

Ethan’s eyes jolted open.  He was back in his bed.  (Still in his bed?)  His pillow was drenched, but his heart was light.  Loving Jesus was guiding him all the way!  There was no reason to despair.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

God Is Our Guide

Psalm 23:1-4
¹  The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing. ²  He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, ³  he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake. ⁴  Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

Psalm 37:23-25
²³  The LORD makes firm the steps of the one who delights in him; ²⁴  though he may stumble, he will not fall, for the LORD upholds him with his hand. ²⁵  I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken …

Psalm 48:14
For this God is our God for ever and ever; he will be our guide even to the end.

Isaiah 30:20-21
²⁰  Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction … ²¹  Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”

God Blesses Us Through Adversity

Psalm 119:71
It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees.

Romans 8:28
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

2 Corinthians 12:9-10
⁹  But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. ¹⁰  That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties.  For when I am weak, then I am strong.

We Don’t Understand Now; One Day We Will

Isaiah 55:8-9
⁸  “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD.  ⁹  “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

1 Corinthians 13:12
For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face.  Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

We Can Trust Our Loving God Who Has Wonderful Plans for Us

Proverbs 3:5-6
⁵  Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; ⁶  in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.

Jeremiah 29:11
For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Romans 8:35, 37-39
³⁵  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?  Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? … ³⁷  No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸  For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹  neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.