Define your journey or it will defy you

In the book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible, we read some depressing passages of scripture. Solomon, a man who had it all, a man who only knew of the best things in life, was concluding that life itself was nothing more than vanities. Here was a man, who could give great proverbial advice. Here was a man who could dive deep philosophically with the best of them. Here was a man who, according to 2nd Chronicles, had things that the kings before him never had.

“Wisdom and knowledge are granted you. And I will give you riches, possessions, honor, and glory, such as none of the kings had before you, and none after you shall have their equal.”

Yet somehow, in all of this,in all of the wisdom, in all of the riches, in all the best things life had to offer, Solomon had failed. Solomon was found lacking.

While he was trying to define his journey, In the end, his journey had defied him.

Solomon found that no pleasure, no possession, nothing he had was bringing a complete happiness. Nothing he pursued was fulfilling. His journey was for happiness,but he ended up with frustrations.

As he stopped in to ponder in his journey, Solomon found that he was hating life.

Solomon said that most of the things we strived for on this journey, proved to only be vanities. He realized that even the wisest of men, found themselves to only be fools. He found that for all the sweat, tears, and energy he put forth in the journey, that life was nothing but labor, sorrow and grief.

On an on, Solomon paints a grim picture. He describes the whoas of life.
He shows the despair, the hurts and the disappointments. In the end, he leaves the readers of the scriptures feeling depressed and hopeless about life. "All is vanity," he says, "all is vanity."

As we travel this journey called life, we will find moments of happiness, moments of frustrations, and moments of sadness. Many things will fall within our path.

Things like: Heartache, pain, change,stress,being let down,failure,success, confusion, misunderstandings and hopefully on many occasions, happiness.
If we really wanted to get down to it, and to be real with ourselves

We can admit that like Solomon, that we too can find the negatives, the vanities and the grim outlooks of this life. If we are not careful, if we allow the Solomon attitude to grip us, we risk the very thing that Solomon experienced:

We risk our journey defying us, instead of us defining our journey.

A journey by definition is "To travel or the act of traveling from one place to another." Biologically and psychologically speaking, a journey is "any course or passage from one stage or experience to another."

Whether a journey be physical or spiritual, one can conclude that there must be a drive and there must be some type of desire. It is a combination of these items which allows the person that is on the journey, to walk down the intended path. It is at the time in which the drive is gone or that the desire is lost, a person stops walking and could be found sitting.

When a person finds themselves sitting down and pondering the many things in life, the danger of a Solomon mindset begins to creep in. They begin to get down on their efforts. They allow the pains of life to catch up. Depression and oppression sets in. The very danger of the proverbial throwing in the towel, becomes a realization. It is at this moment, the person unconsciously allows their journey, to defy them.

A quick flip through the pages of the Bible finds many journeys. There was Abraham who followed God and went to Canaan as instructed. His due reward for following that journey was being blessed by God and becoming a great nation. There was Moses who was instructed to go to Mt. Sinai. He comes face to face with a burning bush and was given further instructions from the Lord. So Moses does as he is instructed and goes on the journey.

Many successful journeys are found within the pages of the Bible. But then, we see the likes of Sampson. Sampson was a man who has a relationship with God. He was given abilities that many of men only dreamed of. Yet somehow, Sampson chose to allow his journey to defy him, instead of he defining his journey.

Sampson strayed from the path when he went into the city of Timnah. He strayed once again when he went into Gaza. It was his straying, his temptations, that took him to places he should of never have gone. Sampson was blazing trails were not to have been blazed.

He was a man set apart for God's service. He was a man of power. He once took apart a lion with only his bare hands. With a jawbone from a donkey, he slew thousands. Yet, Sampson had a fundamental flaw in his life and that flaw allowed his journey to defy him.

In the end, Sampson's eyes were gouged out by the Philistines. The hair he had grown as part of his Nazarite vow, was cut off. The feet that led him down the wrong paths, were now weighed down by shackles. Sampson was hooked to a grinding stone like a donkey. Around and around he went. No longer on a journey with intent and purpose, but now aimlessly going in circles.

After parting ways with Abram, Lot wandered from his intended path, to take his cattle to the well watered green valleys of Jordan. He wandered off the path to camp out right outside the gates of the city Sodom. Instead of staying on the right path which was far from sin city, he chose to camp right next to sin.

The journey he once defined, was now defying him. As fire fell upon Sodom, and Lot and his family fleed, the very sin he cozied up next to, had destroyed his wife. Lot could of seen the warning signs there and ran back to the proper path, but he didn't. He chose to continue on down the wrong path and ran to the hills to hide. It was within those hills that his daughters became the next victims of his choosing the wrong path, the wrong journey.

Choosing to stray from the journey has its consequences. Sin has a price. It will cost you and your family much. However, if you choose to stay the course, to walk within the set of footprints provided for you, then no wind, no wave, no false teachings, no fads or relevant gimmick will cause you to leave the path.

The question presented then is a simple one. Are you defining your journey, or is your journey defying you? Are you deciding in your heart that you will only follow Jesus or are you allowing sin, temptations and things of this world to defy you?
Look at your path today. Which one are you residing on? Are you able to carry on a conversation with Jesus or are you finding that He is off in the distance walking a different direction?