In the eleven years I have been at camp I have walked many of the paths. Some more than others. The main trails will get you to your destination, usually pain free too. However, there are many unknown trails that will also achieve this, usually not so pain free. The main trails are efficient and obvious because they are so well used. They are free from shrubs and brambles. But there are other trails, trails that have been long forgotten and are now filled with branches, shrubs and saplings. But they are there.

What does this rambling have to do with my path? Well, everything actually. Too often we get in the habit of walking down one path. Saying, “Yup this is the best way. Fast, efficient, and PAIN-FREE!”. I got into this habit during high school saying to myself, “Yup, I know what I wanna be when I grow up. I am going to graduate, go to university, become a zoologist, marry, have kids, and live happily ever after.”

For years I said this. I am sure I actually believed this at one point. But eventually I knew that I was sounding like a broken record. I no longer believed it or felt it. It just became something to say when people asked me about where my life was heading.

So in my grade 12 year I told myself I needed a break to figure things out. And God stepped in and showed me one of those hidden trails. It still was leading me forward in my life, but it wasn’t the normal way, it wasn’t obvious, it wasn’t a clear path, and it certainly wasn’t pain free. I went on an exchange to Germany. It was amazing and unbelievable, hard and painful, but it was where I believe my life was supposed to go. So 10 months later I arrived home 100 percent sure what I want to do with my life. I was going to work for a year, take time off for camp, then go to school and begin my zoology degree. Yup, I was back on the main trail.

Then a couple of conversations with friends and God later, I realize that the main trail is too obvious, too pain free. I needed a challenge, I needed to be tested. So I went exploring. I explored myself and my relationship with God. And I remember that His path and my path are one and the same. Now I pray and talk and allow God to show me his way. And low and behold, He does. Not in an explosive, firework way that we would sometimes like. Because as we all know that is not God. Instead He works in subtle ways – in small thoughts in the back of my head, in hearing people say certain things, and certain feelings and longings I have forgotten about and pushed to the back of my mind. That’s God’s way.

Am I certain now which of these paths I should take? Not in the least, but that is a part of the journey. Certain paths may come to a dead end but I know I can always try again. These paths are not mistakes because I am learning from them. This doesn’t mean that I am not going to study zoology. It just means that I have to consider other things as well. I need to get off the main trail, explore, discover, stumble, and fall. And when the trail gets rough, I know that God is going to be walking along with me. It is not just my path, it is His too. I know that there is no path that He gives me that I cannot handle. And when I look back and see only one pair of footprints on my trail, He didn’t leave my side. He is carrying me.

Guest article by Lisa