Treacherous Trail

Oh what will I do now?  I began to panic.  The sun was setting and darkness was settling in, bringing with it a frosty chill, and I was lost miles from home.  My mind raced through the events of the last two days.

I had gone to visit a friend in northeastern Washington.  She lives way out in the mountain wilderness and I just love that country.  Yesterday, we had taken her horses out for a ride and on the way home she pointed to a narrow path that headed up over a steep mountain.  "See that?  That is a short cut.  It leads straight to the ranch and gets you there in half the time.  But, it's hard going, a really rough path.  Maybe we'll take it next time, if you are feeling up to it."  I nodded in agreement.  I love adventure!

This morning an emergency came up that took my friend to Spokane for the day.  I volunteered to stay at the ranch and care for the animals and told her I would take Strawberry out on a ride while she was gone.  "Well, watch out for the grizzly bears," she cautioned.  "They are building up that last layer of fat before they go into hibernation and are pretty active right now.  With that she climbed into her Outback and headed down the drive.

The chores went quickly and soon I was in the saddle, my favorite place to be.  I had lived here for a period of time years ago, so I kind of knew my way around -- at least generally.  I decided to stick with familiar territory and headed out toward Twin Lakes, which was the same direction we had gone the day before.  The sun was high and shining brightly, which quickly melted the chill of this November day.

I was loving life.  I stopped at a tree near the lake to rest and noticed claw marks in the bark about 7 feet up.  Hmm... It looked like a bear had already staked claim to this spot and given its size.  I decided to keep moving.  Strawberry agreed with my decision and picked up the pace as we wound our way through the Tamaracks on the south side of the smallest lake.  We scared up a grouse who greeted us with a growling sound as it beat its wings.   Then a black squirrel gave us a piece of its mind for disturbing its concentration on gathering nuts.  A blue jay squawked over head and a beautiful elk lifted it's head to appraise us before it returned to grazing.   I got carried away with enjoying the sights and sounds of nature and it was getting late in the day when I turned Strawberry toward home.  As the sun got lower in the sky, I began to get nervous. I hadn't brought a jacket, and in the north country at this time of year it gets freezing cold as soon as the sun drops below the horizon.   As I was pondering this, I noticed the trail my friend had pointed out yesterday.  I could hear her words, "It leads straight to the ranch and takes half the time."   In an instant my mind was made up.  Today is as good as any to give this trail a try.

Strawberry's ears twitched her displeasure at my choice but she obeyed the gentle rein and soon we were headed up a steep rugged grade.  In no time, I had to dismount and begin crawling up the hill beside her, my hands pressed against the rocky ground.  This was incredible!  I had never taken a horse up a mountain like this.  Relief rolled over me as the top came into view.  Soon the trail leveled off, wound through a crevice in the rocks and dropped down into a shallow stream.  Here is where I first realized I had made a big mistake.  In front of me was a shear drop off of thousands of feet.  To my right the trail looked well worn and descended slowly toward the valley.  To my left the trail was equally worn and followed the little stream in it's journey downward.  I had no idea which way to go, but I knew the steep grade made it far too dangerous to go down the same way we came up.  My ear caught the sound of a car to my right and the gleam of metal flashed through the trees.  The trail followed a road over there.  Okay, that must be the way home, I concluded, thinking that was the road leading toward town.  So we were off again.  By the time we reached the end of the trail it was dusk.  I dismounted and looked around me.  The trail ended at the highway but what panicked me was the road sign that loomed in front of me.  It read, "Welcome to Canada."

What would I do now?  Before I could think of answers to this question, I woke up.  I was warm in my bed in Critter Patch.  Wow, that was quite a dream!   I couldn't go back to sleep so I decided to write about it.

Wouldn't it be nice if we could always just wake up from a crisis to find out everything is just fine?  Unfortunately we live in a dangerous confusing world.  Often times we head out in the wrong direction, fully believing we're on the right trail.  But just because we believe something with all our heart doesn't make it fact.  It's easy to get lost when we put all our trust in our own sense of direction.

I am so glad we have an experienced Guide for this treacherous trail we call life.  Jesus came as a man to walk the trail ahead of us.   Now He offers to guide us, saying, "I am the Way the Truth and the Life..." (John 14:6)   There is no need for us to ever stray, get or stay lost.

We may not be able to escape the rough trails and crises in life by waking up physically but if we awaken spiritually and fix our eyes on God, we will find strength, courage and a Guide to lead us safely home.

Bonnie Morsette ~ 11/17/2009