Trails

This past Sunday I went to one of my favorite places in the world, Oak Mountain State Park. This is a beautiful place with miles and miles of trails - some very easy, some bust your you know what tough. I love to run at Oak Mt. year round. The different seasons present different beauties and challenges.
Anyway I am training for my next marathon, so I like to go do some long runs on the trails. This time of year the leaves are mostly off of the trees. The sound of running and crunching is a great sound! I was thinking about my run this morning when a couple of things hit me. I was running a part of the way on the red trail which is the mountain bike trail. I started up one of the sections and I heard a strange sound. The further I ran, the sound grew louder and louder. Then I was able to place the sound - it was a leaf blower. There was a guy who was blowing off a section of the trail for the bikers. The trail was very clean and it made all the obstacles (roots, rocks, etc) very easy to see. Then I got to a less used trail and the leaves were completely covering the trail. The only way to see the trail at times were the markers on the trees. It was very difficult to run fast, not that I am fast, and not trip on the rocks and roots. All the obstacles were hidden. It was very easy also to get off of the trail.
Now you know what I am fixing to say, but I have to say it anyway. I am praying for the Lord to reveal what He desires for us and make it clear the way we need to go, to reveal the obstacles to us. I want to stay on the path he has marked for us - not run ahead, or trip, or get off of the path He has in store for us. He is the trail guide and I want to follow Him. His Word is the trail I want to stay on. I want to run the pace He desires for me.
"Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." Psalms 119:105
"Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." Phil. 3:12-14
Let's press on together and run the trails He has before us!