There Are No Shortcuts with God
My husband, Seth, and I love to hike.
We aren’t professional outdoorsmen by any means and won’t be tackling the Appalachian Trail any time soon, but we do enjoy an afternoon spent meandering through God’s beautiful creation.
On a recent long weekend, we drove to Berry College, where our goal was to hike to the House of Dreams. The charming cottage sits atop Lavender Mountain, 1,360 feet above sea level, and is surrounded by vibrant gardens and foliage and spectacular views of the campus and city of Rome, Georgia far below.
The House of Dreams was built as a gift for Martha Berry, the founder of Berry College, in 1922 by students and faculty.
It was meant to be somewhat of a retreat for her, and we were looking forward to having a peaceful retreat of our own into the mountains.
Seth and Sara Claudia standing together in front of a creek while on a hike. They are smiling at the camera.
Before beginning our hike, I’ll be honest, we did not do our research.
As a result, once we arrived on campus, we weren’t completely sure where the trail actually began.
In an impatient effort to get to our destination, we started out on a path that to us looked like a quick shortcut up the mountain.
A shortcut…how great! What could possibly go wrong?
Very quickly, what was meant to be a relaxing hike turned into quite the adventure. We began our trek, and, before we knew it, we were climbing straight up the side of this mountain.
No exaggeration, we looked like a couple of mountain goats pawing our way up an incredibly steep incline over brush, tree roots, and loose rocks.
To say it was intense would be an understatement.
It felt like we were climbing Mount Everest and less than halfway into our ascent, sweat was pouring, our hearts were racing, and our legs were shaking like Jell-O.
We found a group of large rocks on which to rest and in the silence, we both wondered what in the world we had gotten ourselves into.
It seems we were learning the lesson of Proverbs 19:2 the hard way, which says,
“Desire without knowledge is not good, and whoever makes haste with his feet misses his way.”
Mount Everest in the background behind green trees and a flowing stream.
In the book of Exodus, we can read of a hasty decision made by the Israelites.
While the challenging journey that resulted from mine and Seth’s decision on the trail felt very serious to us at the moment, the decision that the Israelites made had much more dire consequences.
In Exodus 24, Moses ascended up Mount Sinai to meet with God and receive the Ten Commandments written on stone tablets.
This meeting was not a brief one, and Moses was gone for forty days and forty nights. (Exodus 24:12-18 ESV)
Meanwhile, the Israelites down below became impatient as the days continued to pass by and their leader still had not returned.
So, what did they do?
They took matters into their own hands.
“When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, “Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.””
(Exodus 32:1)
The people were so impatient that they seemed to forget that they already had the one true God going ahead of them.
In fact, He had already guided them through so much on their journey out of Egypt.
Then, Aaron, the brother of Moses, gave the people this command:
So, Aaron said to them, “Take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” So, all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord.” And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.”
(Exodus 32:2-6)
As you can probably imagine, God was not too pleased with the actions of the Israelites.
“And the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshipped it and sacrificed to it and said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!””
(Exodus 32:7-8)
While the decisions that led to mine and Seth’s hiking adventure and the choices that the Israelites made are both very different, they do have the same underlying lesson.
When we become impatient with the circumstances in our life and make hasty decisions, we can find ourselves in a lot of trouble.
Text on a white piece of paper over a green background that says, “When we become impatient with the circumstances in our life and make hasty decisions, we can find ourselves in a lot of trouble.” - Sara Claudia Ministries
For me and Seth, that meant very sore muscles and aching joints for days.
For the Israelites, it meant falling into sin, corruption, and idolatry which angered God.
If only we would have taken the time to discern the path that was already laid ahead of us.
If Seth and I would have spent a few extra minutes exploring our surroundings, we would have discovered the well-traveled, easily-winding trail that wound its way up the mountain.
We would have saved ourselves a lot of exertion, pain, and what seemed like dozens of bottles of Gatorade!
Likewise, if the Israelites had kept their eyes on God, focused on the guidance He had already given them, and stayed patient, they too would have realized that God always goes ahead of us, paving a path that is so much better than any shortcut or alternate route we could discover on our own.
If you are in a period of waiting today and find yourself becoming impatient and tempted to take matters into your own hands, remember this verse from Psalm 32,
“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.”
(Psalm 32:8)
Rest in the fact that you always have God as your guide and instead of making a hasty step forward, pray fervently, listen carefully, and take the time to discern the route that He wants you to travel.
