This Lonely, Narrow Road

My time in Israel has been once in a lifetime. The people I'm with-I wouldn't want to do this with anyone else. But it hasn't been all fun and desert thistle (as oppose to roses haha). God has brought me through spiritual wilderness before and during this trip. I am FINALLY coming to a place where I can make the conscious decision to have joy. It's been so hard and today I miss home a lot and the "quizzy quiz" we took made me cry it was so frustrating. The people are nothing like I thought they would be. I don't know how I thought they would be. But I am starting to look at the hills covered with dirt and somehow I am beginning to see beauty in them. And today for the first time as I listened to "Stay Close" by Cory Asbury I heard a line I have heard many times before but today I really processed it. It says "I want to be Your friend, one who will sit and hear Your words. I want to walk with You down this lonely, narrow road." I want to hear His words but I don't want to be lonely!! hahaha The realization made me crack up. It is going to feel lonely a lot of times. It's going to be frustrating. Things that are unwanted are going to come. But that's part of being able to hear His voice. That's part of walking with Him. I think I "know" that but I had forgotten it. So if you are feeling lonely, if you are feeling forsaken or just tired and frustrated or disappointed remember that if you follow Yeshua, there WILL be those times. But you have the joy of walking with Him. You have the peace that you are going in the right direction. Sorrow will come for a season. But joy always comes in the morning. And if the lonely, narrow road means I'm doing things right, so be it because I am so in love with Him that as long as we're together, I don't really care where we are-this time I mean that.

"Don't look for shortcuts to God. The market is flooded with surefire, easygoing formulas for a successful life that can be practiced in your spare time. Don't fall for that stuff, even though crowds of people do. The way to life—to God!—is vigorous and requires total attention." Matthew 7:13-14 The Message

"Enter through the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and spacious and broad is the way that leads away to destruction, and many are those who are entering through it. But the gate is narrow (contracted by pressure) and the way is straitened and compressed that leads away to life, and few are those who find it." Matthew 7:13-14 Amplified