Thank You for the Walk: Giving thanks for the journey, no matter how dark, no matter how scary

Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
—1 Thessalonians 5:18 NIV

The sun was already low in the sky when my cousin, Debbie, and I set out for our after-work walk on the farm where we grew up. With an eight-year gap in our ages, we didn’t experience childhood as playmates. But for this season in our lives, we are close companions. With both of us being single, it has been nice to have someone to recount the ups and downs of the day with—nicer still to hear her childhood stories and memories of our beloved grandparents.

Both of us are on a quest to slim down, so we walk briskly to shed the pounds, but on this evening I think our pace was more about outlasting the sinking sun. Quickly, we passed the cow pasture, and then paused at the electric fence obstructing our passage to the bay. What now?

A Different Course

A man’s heart plans his course, but the LORD directs his steps.

—Proverbs 16:9 HNV

My cousin told me she couldn’t go on our usual walk on the farm this morning. Although disappointed, I decided to go alone. I needed the exercise, and it would give me some time to pray. I had a lot on mind lately. With school starting soon, I fretted over the new course I’d been assigned to teach. The subject is not familiar to me. I will have to crack the books and watch slews of videos to be prepared, which means giving up a few of my precious remaining days of summer break to devote to it. That, I resented.

I donned my sneakers and set out for my usual course along the Chaptico Bay. Gravel crunched beneath my feet as I passed my cousin’s house and made my way through the barnyard. Then I stopped dead in my tracks. What! My passage through the pasture was cut off by an electrified fence.

Stay in Lane

”... let us strip off and throw aside every encumbrance (unnecessary weight) and that sin which so readily (deftly and cleverly) clings to and entangles us, and let us run with patient endurance and steady and active persistence the appointed course of the race that is set before us”

—Hebrews 12:1

“Wait for green,” the traffic sign read.

As opposed to what? I wondered. Doesn't every licensed driver know to wait for green before venturing through the intersection?

“Beware of aggressive drivers,” the next sign also caught my attention.

What? They have to post a sign for this? Where I come from the signs read, “Beware of deer crossing.” But aggressive drivers? What state is this?

I was traveling through Pennsylvania and New Jersey when I spotted those signs, so I’m not sure which one gets the credit. But I do know which state gets the credit for the sign I read this week—it’s where I come from, my own beloved Maryland.

“Use caution. Stay in lane.”

Perhaps I’m missing something, because again as opposed to what? Doesn't every driver know that?