Pathways

It’s funny how a pathway that was once ugly to you can become beautiful. This happened to me recently. I walked this pathway with low expectations, and a bad attitude in my heart. The first time I ever walked it I thought it was the ugliest pathway I’d ever seen.

I started walking the pathway every day and slowly but surely it started growing on me. A few weeks later I walked the pathway with love in my heart for the journey I was on and I had the thought, “This is the most beautiful pathway I had ever seen”.

It’s amazing how your external surroundings change when your inner being changes. Absolutely nothing about the path changed, not even rain had fallen in-between these thoughts, but I had changed, therefore my perspective of the pathway transitioned. The only thing that had shifted was that this time around I had a fresh perspective and belief in my heart for the journey ahead. The first time I walked it with depression and distaste for the new season of life I was in. The next time I walked it with optimism and new expectations.

As soon as I had the thought, “This is the most beautiful pathway I’ve ever seen,” my proceeding thought was, “Are you kidding me?! You hated this pathway 10 days ago.” It made me realize how much our inner thoughts and feelings about things can reflect and impact our actual, physical reality. I think thats how you can normally tell someone is depressed or upset by just looking at them.

This conversion experience also made me think about the power of hope. It made me realize that when we find hope, we should grab on to it and hold on to it for dear life. Grab on to the change that hope brings and let it not only transform our inner world but our external world too.

The pathway of life that we walk is too short to allow our view to become distorted. We have to keep our eyes on the prize of transforming into what we truly want to be. When our attention is captivated by what we want more of, and the hope that we hold we wouldn’t have time to get caught up on the negative things that life brings.

If you are human, there will inevitably be low points, but we have to persevere and reach for the other side of the valley’s we face. I actually hate when we call our hard times valleys because valleys are large and thats giving them too much power, let’s call them crevice’s instead. So reach for the other side of the crevice. When you reach for things you are strengthened and stretched but very rarely does a stretch destroy you. A stretch actually loosens you up for what’s next.

A stretch is something that’s common in most athletics, something that improves your endurance and allows you to become agile and more flexible for the next event. Crevices in life allow us to become flexible and strengthened for the next time something comes around. Stretching actually makes your every day activities (even when you aren’t being tested) easier. So praise God for the stretches of faith because through those he’s preparing us for life and giving us a new fresh perspective about the pathways we walk.

Grab hold of the hope that’s in your life and allow it to change your perspective. For me, my hope is found in Christ alone. He’s my peace and what changes my perspective. I hope that you find peace too. Life is so much sweeter when you walk thinking that your path in life is alluring rather then an ugly, dessert wasteland. Enjoy the pathway you have been put on because it is a part of your beautiful, unique journey.

What I saw when I first walked the path.

After my perspective shirt (Apart from where I was looking, nothing changed).