Setting up a landmark

Have you ever started out on a journey and found yourself there, almost unaware of the twists and turns you took to get there? It is though your car moved you on auto-pilot, but it was really your brain that did it! There are just some places our brain shouldn't take us on 'auto-pilot', but are destinations we all travel at times. We all have 'mental' roads we travel so frequently, we could drift into a state of total absent-mindedness and still get to our destination without even noticing how we got there! The ability of reaching the destination time and time again is really based on how frequently we "travel" the same path. The more we travel it, the more every twist and turn becomes something we maneuver through with ease. Have you ever considered the paths you travel with God (and he with you) in this same, familiar manner? I hope there are more of those paths than the 'mental paths' we shouldn't have been traveling in the first place!

And how blessed all those in whom you live, whose lives become roads you travel; they wind through lonesome valleys, come upon brooks, discover cool springs and pools brimming with rain! God-traveled, these roads curve up the mountain, and at the last turn—Zion! God in full view! (Psalm 84:5-7)

When God "travels" the roads of our hearts and minds with a frequency, we find mental roads which lead to some of the choicest destinations for our thought life. Places like peaceful springs of his everlasting life, abundant fields of choice fruit, and lush valleys of perfect rest. I liked this illustration of "familiarity" with God - our lives being like roads he travels with ease and comfort. To me, this speaks of frequency of passage - well-known by both of us - frequented often. He travels in our "space" and we in his. The only difference between our "mindless" travels from one point to another in a day-dreaming mode is our active participation in his "traveling" the roads of our lives. Those places God "frequents" in our lives are the very places we need to experience his presence and touch the most. Did you ever consider the places God seems to "frequent" in your life as "purposefully" frequented? Take a moment to consider just one "place" God seems to 'end up' in your life - those places you sense his watchfulness over your thoughts, actions, or attitudes. It may be he is frequenting 'space' in your emotions, your thoughts, or even passing through your spoken words from time to time. In these very areas, he hopes to create lush valleys of his rest, abundant fields of the very best fruit, and springs of life galore!

God-traveled lives are "affected" lives. We cannot have the passage of God's presence without the corresponding effect of his presence. It is impossible to be "touched" by God and not bear some evidence of his touch. The very frequency by which he "touches" certain "paths" in our lives is evidence of how much he wants to make an impact in those areas - nothing catastrophic ever happens without someone taking the initiative. The impact may be subtle at first, but in time, the evidence of his passage will be clear to all who look upon us. Indeed, we live blessed lives - simply because of the "travels" of God in our lives. We are also blessed to have a God who "travels" the same paths in us until we are affected by his passage in those areas - in mind, emotion, and will. I have traveled many places, but some I know much better than others. Those places I have only visited once or twice are not well-known to me. There are no landmarks which I recall with ease. Those places I travel frequently have a familiarity to them which bespeak the frequency of travel! God's desire is to travel our lives with such frequency so as to have our lives bespeak his travel! He desires to leave landmarks in our mind, heart, emotions, and will that show where he has been. Just sayin!