The Overgrown Path

by GRIERSON, G. | Category: N/a | Jan 2008

When we first moved into our old farmhouse in Ireland, it had been empty for about three years and the garden resembled a jungle. Pushing the jungle back was a major challenge! One area was covered in weeds, but once cut back, it revealed a hidden path running down from the house alongside the trees. We cleared the path and clearly marked one edge of it by setting up an old cartwheel.

Four years have passed since that path was cleared, and because we felt that the garden was too big to keep all of it tended, we drew an invisible line and said, "All within this line we will upkeep; outside is left to nature." That path fell back outside the line!

I looked at it the other day, or at least where it should be! The nettles and weeds have reclaimed it and the old cartwheel is only just visible above the undergrowth.

I wonder if that's true of the life that you used to live for the Lord? The path of service that you trod was clearly marked, much used, an important part of your life. Then gradually things began to drop off. Serving the Lord didn't seem to be so important, other things crept in and little by little the path of service fell into disuse. Soon it was almost out of sight and out of mind. Almost, but not quite, lost!

Has the Lord been pulling at your heart-strings recently, saying,

�"Stand by the roads, and look,

and ask for the ancient paths,

where the good way is; and walk in it,

and find rest for your souls"� (Jer. 6:16)?

The path is still there, much overgrown, but only waiting to be cleared and put to use again. It doesn't matter much if an old path in our too-big garden is given back to be a highway for mice, slugs and caterpillars. But if thorns and thistles are allowed to choke our clear identity as Christians, if we merge into the undergrowth of a world that has despised and rejected the Lord Jesus, then we have lost something precious, including present rest for our souls.

If so, who can estimate the grief caused to the heart of the One who said, �"Come to me all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest"� (Mat. 11:28) and then went to the cross to pay the penalty that our sins deserved. He finished His work to obtain rest for us, to be given as a gift as we come in faith, and then to be found as we take up His yoke of service to follow Him.

With unfathomable sadness the Father watches and waits for the lost child who wanders abroad, squandering precious time and gifts on the broken things of this present world that cannot last, and meanwhile the path of service, that, if walked, would bring eternal imperishable blessings, grows increasingly choked and neglected. Is that you? Take heart! The Father in the parable that Jesus told (Luke 15) never stopped hoping and watching: the undergrowth can still be cut back and the ancient paths of blessing found and walked again.

'Repent' is a biblical word and it is the first and essential step to rediscovering the old paths. It means 'a change of heart' or 'an about turn'. Turning back to the Lord takes an about turn, a conscious decision to put things right.

Why not take up the spiritual scythe, strimmer and anything else that you need to clear the years of weeds and find again the ancient path of service. Christian friends will help you as you seek to rediscover the Bible and in it the One who never gave up on you. All these years He stood at a closed door at the end of an overgrown path, gently knocking and saying, �Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me� (Rev. 3:20).

(Bible quotes from ESV)

GRIERSON, G. | Jan 2008
N/a