I finally understand why we refer to life as a journey and that the path our lives take is determined by the 'roads' we travel on. Of course there are times when we have no control over which route we take to get to our destinations but very often we do choose our own paths and ultimately we choose our own final destination! However, getting back to the point, my journey has, so far, been a rather boring one, and traveled along dusty little back roads - no super highways of success and high living for me! I can honestly say that my major achievements in life have been more by chance than brilliance, stubborn perseverance than superior skill and stumbling over obstacles rather than conquering mountains!
Just over a week ago I had a birthday and strangely enough I had quite a few people telling me that it was an 'achievement'. I'd never had that said about any of my other birthdays before and, as I had not been seriously ill, I was at a loss to understand why turning Fifty was such a big deal! Admittedly I knew that I was now on the downhill slope towards the pearly gates, and that's not a problem at all, but an achievement? Quite honestly I didn't achieve Fifty, Fifty happened to me! To say it was an achievement is to say that catching a cold is an achievement - not something you set out to do deliberately! No, I'm afraid to say that turning Fifty was another one of those milestones that I tripped over!
Like my High School Graduation.... I passed my subjects, they let me out; Matric Dance (or to the Americans "The Prom") - didn't go; twentieth and thirtieth - don't remember them, fortieth bought a rather screechy breed of parrot. Wedding no 1 - tiny and best forgotten, Wedding no 2 - lots of fun but only about 40 people and nice and quiet - just how I like it! You see, I prefer the side roads, more scenic, less congestion, safer, and I'm really not worried about potholes slowing me down!
But now that I have tripped over that 50 milestone that just happened to be laying in my path, I find that the road ahead is still as dark as before - no streetlights showing me where I'm going to be going or how long the road will be. So all I can do as I continue travelling along this road (at least I'm on the downhill run now) is pray that wherever God leads me, whether on super highways or dusty dirt roads, if I stumble down potholes, get into fender-benders or face life-threatening danger, I want to live my life, my journey, in such a way, that at all times I bring glory to Him.
