You Can't Rush the Downhill

My friend C. Salena (2019) coined the phrase "Truth on Trails." Here's another edition, this time from a recent hike where I did not really have a precise plan. I just wanted to hike up one trail and loop back on another. It's been a while since I hiked these trails, and I did not remember them well. I was pretty sure I was going the right way, but there sure were a lot of ups and downs. By the third or fourth or fifth one, I really wanted to be done and back to my car.

As I picked my way down yet another rocky descent, I thought to myself, "You can't rush the downhills." Go too fast, and I risked falling, face-planting, and possibly even sustaining a severe injury, none of which I wanted. I just had to watch my feet, and slowly, steadily make my way down the trail.

I thought about the downhills of life as I gingerly made my way. I dislike hard times. I hate struggles. When they come, I just want to power through them and be done. That's not the way life works though. That's not the way God works. We learn through struggles (Rom 5:2-5; James 1:2-4). We gain strength through trials. God sanctifies us in and through fire. It's not pleasant. It's not pretty, but it generally works out for our good when God is behind it.

There are certainly times when our struggles, the downhills of life, are due to our own poor choices (as in the instance of addictions, substance use, infidelity, etc.). That's not what I am talking about here, though. I'm talking about the hard times that come, not because anything we have or have not done, but just because life is hard, and difficult.

Rush the downhills, increase the possibility of hurt. Try to speed through, and maybe miss the lessons God is trying to teach me, and potentially have to go through this again. Rush the downhills, and miss the dexterity learned from careful foot placement. Hurry up and miss some of the glories of home when I get there.

I don't like the downhills, in hiking, or in life. I don't have to. What I do need to do is be present in them, giving care and prayer to my way so that I may grow and learn through them. In God's providence, may it be so.

Reference:

She Say Speak [@SheSaySpeak]. (2017, November 5). Taking the way that creeped me out allowed me to see something so beautiful it distracted me from fear and [Photograph]. Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/p/BbH4PjoALm6/