The Path of Least Resistance
Have you ever watched a small stream of water? Think about a stream in the woods behind your house, a small river, or even the water on your city streets after a hard rain. Pay close attention to it. What does it do? Water goes through the path of least resistance. As I look over the course of my life I see a similar pattern. I’m not sure whether it is just me, my personality type, or simply human nature, but I like to travel the path of least resistance.
In that quick survey of my life, I see a lot of decisions that were easy to make. They were the natural decisions to make based on the flow of my life. An easy example is sports. I was naturally talented at several sports. I wasn’t always the best at each individual sport, but I was above average amongst my peers in all of them. Therefore, it was easy for me to not only make the team at school, but excel in them as well. Leadership is another area that comes natural to me. Again, I am not the best leader alive, but since it is a gift and natural tendency of mine, I often found myself in leadership positions. Sports and leadership were easy for me.
I believe we all have gifts and tendencies that are God-given. I also believe God wants us to use these as much as possible in order to glorify Him. But I don’t think He wants us to rely on these tendencies alone. I don’t think He wants us to trust in our natural gifting and forget who gave us the gifts in the first place. Therefore, I believe there are moments in our lives when we have a very conscious decision to make: follow the path of least resistance or, for lack of a better phrase, do something hard.
Moving to Catania has been the hardest thing I have ever done in my life, bar none. Specifically, learning Italian has been a struggle. New words and phrases seem to be thrown at me before I can process the ones I’m trying to understand. It is a lot to take in.
The path of least resistance says to give it up.
The path of least resistance says to go back to what used to be home.
The path of least resistance says you can’t do it.
The path of least resistance says focus on what you can do, not on what you can’t do.
But I choose to do the hard thing. I choose to stick it out. I choose to make a new path. A path that is yet to be carved. A path that can only be continued down in the power of the Holy Spirit.
In my weakness, He will be strong. I think I read that somewhere before.
