Last month, our family had the opportunity to spend a few days together in North Georgia. This was a providential aligning of circumstances – an invitation to the wedding of friends, the opportunity for some much-needed family time, and it happened to fall on the weekend of our own 10 year wedding anniversary! We enjoyed this road trip to the fullest, and were humbled at the way God provided even the perfect place for us to stay, a peaceful and cozy cabin owned by the parents of friends.
The highlights of our family time on this trip were undoubtedly our daily hiking adventures. Not having many trails to hike in New Orleans, this was a new experience for our family. Every hike ended with the thrill of spotting a waterfall – if you’ve ever spent time in North Georgia, you know that the waterfalls are plentiful, and gorgeous! Our boys loved hearing the roar of the water get louder and louder as we approached, loved peeling off socks and shoes and shrieking as they dipped their toes in the icy water once we arrived. 
On our last full day, I discovered that just minutes from our cabin was a trailhead with reviews (oh the wonders of technology – wifi at our cabin, GPS directions and online user reviews of hiking trails…) promising a kid-friendly, relatively short hike following a rushing stream all the way up to a beautiful waterfall. We hadn’t initially planned to hike on the day of our friends’ wedding, but after finding a such a promising trail so close by, we decided to go for it.
We pulled up into the park area and saw a few cars parked by a sign. I’d read that the particular trailhead we wanted had an area to park marked by a large boulder with the trail name carved into it – no such boulder was in sight, but it WAS a clearly marked parking lot… I told Richard maybe we should continue on down the road to see if we could find the boulder mentioned by the hikers online.
We passed the parking lot and continued on down a dirt road that grew smaller and smaller, until we came to a VERY large puddle. We had already forded one puddle of questionable depth (Richard had to hop out and measure it with a stick before we attempted to cross), but this one looked like it would swallow our car whole. Peering ahead into the woods beyond the puddle, we couldn’t see anything notable, and our GPS signal was fading. We backed up, turned around, and headed back to the parking lot by the other cars.
Pulling into a spot, we saw a young couple who appeared to have just returned from a hike. Excited to solve the mystery of how to find the trail, we approached them. “Hey! Did y’all see the waterfall?” They proceeded to explain to us that they’d originally planned to take the same trail we were looking for, had been up the same road we had just returned from, and also turned around. “But,” they said, “We just hiked a trail starting over that way, and there wasn’t a waterfall, but the woods were beautiful! And there were some open fields with a nice view. You would enjoy it, and it would be easy for the kids.”
Thanking them, we returned to our car, debating what to do. The clock was ticking – we had to hike, race back to the cabin, change clothes, and get on the road allowing enough time to arrive at the wedding a little early to meet with our friends, so we needed to make a quick decision. Should we take the trail that the hikers described, the one that was a sure bet, the one we could start down right away? Or should we return down the road to keep searching for the trail we’d read about, with the river and the beautiful waterfall?
We felt lost, as we’d already been down the road we thought led to the right trail, and had found nothing. Would it be a waste of time?
Climbing back into the car, feeling somewhat unsure of ourselves, disgruntled, and under the pressure of the ticking clock, we decided to try heading down the small dirt road one more time. We parked just behind the car-swallowing puddle and walked around it to see if we could find anything further down the road.
To our amazement, not 50 feet beyond the puddle, we found the very boulder we’d been searching for with the sign for the trailhead! We danced around and took pictures, and shot off down the trail with a renewed energy and excitement.
The hike was one of the best we had on the trip, and one we will remember for years to come. Our two year old was pausing in awe of every mini-waterfall we saw spraying the rock walls alongside the path. Our seven year old was racing ahead, leaping over logs, and calling back about what was coming up further down the path. We were laughing and delighting in all the sights, sounds and smells of the forest and the rushing water.
About a mile in, we had already seen many and varied breathtaking views of the water rushing, twisting and tumbling over rocks, under bridges, over cliffs – we were tired and happy, but we still hadn’t seen the “big waterfall” that was promised at the end of the trail. I was worried about being late to the wedding, and I asked Richard if he thought we should turn around. After all, we’d had a wonderful hike already. He glanced at his phone (of course he was charting our mileage on his Nike app) and assured me that the waterfall should be just around the corner based on how far we’d traveled. So on we went, and sure enough, within a couple short minutes, we heard little voice shouting up ahead, “I FOUND IT! HERE IT IS!”
As we reflected on these experiences later that day, Richard and I shared a profound moment – we both felt the Lord impressing on us the spiritual parallels of our journey with Him. The waterfall had been “promised” to us – we’d read about it, had a vision of what it could be, and made the decision to embark on the journey to reach it. We’d heard from others what to look for, and where to go. When we got there however – there were obstacles in our way. We knew the boulder marking the trail was SUPPOSED to be there – but where was it? Wouldn’t it be simpler to turn around and pursue something that would still be good, but was more certain, more concrete? After all we’d just heard first-hand from a couple who encouraged us strongly to take a different path. They were looking for the waterfall too, but ended up feeling satisfied with another trail. Besides, if we went with their advice, we’d be sure to get a hike in AND make it to the wedding on time. But…….
We felt sad for the other couple; they had been SO CLOSE to finding the right trailhead, yet turned around in defeat, accepting a substitute. We realized that we had nearly been convinced to do the same thing, and would have completely missed the joy of the true path.
Still, even once we HAD found the promised path, I was ready to be content with just enjoying a portion of the journey, thinking it likely best to retreat back to “safety and security” (allowing lots of time to get to the wedding)… impatient and not realizing I was, again, only steps away from the very thing I’d been searching for all day.
How many times have you or I done this in our lives? We know that God is leading us in a certain direction, BUT. Maybe we misheard Him, maybe others who had gone this way before us were mistaken, maybe we won’t be able to find our way after all. Maybe we will spend so much time looking for this trail that we will miss out on something else that really needs to be done. Maybe if we just do something SIMILAR to what God is calling us to do, it will be just as good! After all, it’s the same forest! How different could it be? 
Along this journey of planting Rebuild Church, we have come to this question many times. From the roadblocks we faced in building our house, to the difficult decision to step away from our previous ministry, in uncertainty with finances – countless times we have faced this decision – should we trust what God has said, or trust our own “common sense”? Should we step out in faith, or follow the “wise words” of others? Thank God for those friends and mentors in life who encourage us with the true wisdom of God’s word, whose quiet voices run counter-current to the louder voices of the world and gently press us into the challenge of pursuing God’s path, regardless of the cost. Time and time again, we find that what God has planned for us beyond the obstacles on the road, beyond the borders of our self-devised plans, are actually FAR better than what we could have even imagined – if we are just willing to trust him and follow him to where we can not see!
May this be true for you and me today, and every day as we seek his path together. The joy of the journey multiplies when it is shared!
