The Simple Answers… To Life’s Most Important Questions.
Bible Study Course Lesson 7 -3
“That’s just the way things worked out.”
“I would have married her, but life went along a different path.”
“If there was another way of doing this, I couldn’t see it.”
“I’ve seen many things over the course of my life.”
“He’s heading down a bad road.”
“He’s going to succeed.”
“Everyone knows my way of life.”
Who hasn’t used metaphors like these? But who ever thinks about what these commonplace expressions are telling us? Because we all know, without realizing it, that our life is like a path. And yet we never carry that thought to its logical conclusion.
Psalms 27:11 Teach me thy way, O LORD, and lead me in a plain path, because of mine enemies.
God used words like way, path, road, steps, course, and so on, hundreds of times in the Bible. And we know these are soul words. But did you ever really stop to think about what this symbol is?
God’s metaphors cannot be broken. And most of the reason knowledge is hidden from us is that we just don’t think them through enough. Symbols are never random. They’re chosen, quite specifically, because of how they relate to the thing symbolized.
So did you ever treat these words themselves as a parable –as an image meant to help us better visualize what He’s talking about? Because the path of God is exactly like a path; a hike through the woods, a trek up a hill, a march to a distant city.
If you truly believed that, and thought it through in every sense, there would be nothing left to say. Because if you truly understood a hiking trail, you’d fully understand God’s way of life (Proverbs 15:24).
SEEING OUR WAY
God specifically compares this life to a journey, and calls us pilgrims, because we are all walking towards a “city” on a distant horizon (Hebrews 11:13). Now that city represents eternal life, and thus the path to it is the way of life.
Remember, this is a metaphor; you need to see the picture God is painting with these words. When He told Abraham about a path, what would Abraham have imagined? When He told David about a way, what would David have seen in his head?
So what do the words trail, path, way, and so on mean to you? Get that picture in your head; because “the way” is a living metaphor, not a dead symbol. It’s alive because you understand what it means… if you only think about your own experiences on trails.
God doesn’t have to spell out the entire scene He’s describing, because you’ve already experienced scenes like it! So envision a path through the desert; up and down hills and through bandits and brush. Every metaphor about the “way” in the Bible, needs to be understood in the context of this image.
God used metaphors because we would be without excuse, because we would clearly understand the things He said by our own experiences with the things He made (Romans 1:20). And we’ve all… walked before. So God expected us to fill in the gaps in the story with our own living understanding!
Everyone knows that decisions are like forks in our life’s path; do you study abroad, date that person, take that job, choose that major in college; each one of these choices will take your life down a different course, leading you in a different way.
Most of these choices aren’t necessarily right or wrong; you can get to that city on the horizon by many different routes. Some are certainly faster than others; some more risky than others; but as long as you’re at least generally headed in the right direction you’re getting closer to your goal.
Most decisions won’t decide whether or not you will get to the Holy City by themselves; even if you choose the wrong trail, there is often a way back onto the right path, if you catch it early enough. But even a minor error in judgment can make a difference in how long your trip takes.
There is never just the one path between any two points; and this life is not about traveling the shortest distance between where we are, and where God needs us to be. The shortest distance between two points, Euclid told us, is a straight line. But hikers know that’s not necessarily the best path.
Because shortest, fastest, and easiest, are rarely found on the same trail. Would you rather get there sooner or less stressed? These choices will affect your journey, but the main goal of walking any path is getting there. How that happens is not very important, in the long run.
There is always one best way, although it’s not always obvious which path that is. But there are several paths nearly as good; and several hundred more ways that will eventually get you there –much later, and much more exhausted than the guy who picked the best path. So would you rather get there feeling energetic, or take a chance on not getting there in time? Matthew 25:1-13.
Even if it’s a little longer, it’s better to walk around mountains; generally better to go around deserts, bandits, and mighty rivers. Why walk through the valley of the shadow of death if you can avoid it (Mark 8:26)? But if it saves months off our journey, maybe it’s worth the gamble.
Life is about finding the best way we can. At each fork, you need to make the best decision. Not the shortest, fastest, or easiest, but choosing the path which, all things considered, is the best.
DOWN THE AISLE
I can’t say this enough, keep the metaphor real. Otherwise they’re just dead words, this way they can connect to your own imagination and come alive again. So imagine yourself traveling to Europe, or hiking up a mountain; God gave us these metaphors to make them real to us.
A classic example is who you will take as your traveling companion; they usually won’t make the difference in getting there or not, you’ll still get there… it’s just a question of how much “trouble in the flesh” you’ll have along the way (1 Corinthians 7:25-28).
There is nothing like the freedom of traveling alone with no strings. You can travel fast and light, whenever and however you like with no one to think of but yourself. You’re open for every opportunity, subject only to your own will. This is what Paul was telling us in 1 Corinthians 7:32-38.
Traveling alone, whether it’s to Asia or the heavenly city, is easier, faster, and more likely to get you there. Traveling with a spouse complicates life, Paul makes clear; and it does increase the risk you’ll get distracted and settle down somewhere along the way, never finishing your journey.
But a traveling companion can also be an asset (Proverbs 18:22); because being with a companion has perks (Ecclesiastes 4:7-12). Which is why God said it wasn’t good to travel alone (Genesis 2:18), even though Adam would certainly have been able to enjoy the Garden longer had Eve not been there.
But he could have had the wife and the Garden had he made better choices. If he had cared for the things of the Lord instead of the things of his wife, he could have returned Eve to the manufacturer for a trade-in; or at least a refurbishment (if only!).
After all, he still had 23 ribs left… but no, he saved a rib and lost the Garden. Anyway, the point is, whether a companion makes your trip easier or harder depends on the choices you make (Ecclesiastes 7:26).
The right traveling companion can make a bad trip fun; the wrong one can make a great trip miserable (Proverbs 21:8-9). It’s really a question of which problems you’d rather have, because both ways have advantages and drawbacks.
Which is why Paul said it didn’t really matter which we chose (1 Corinthians 7:29). Because most of these paths –as long as we don’t take the really stupid forks in the trail –wind up in the same destination. The only question is, how weary will you be when you arrive? How long will it take you… and will you make it in time?
A WRONG TURN
Every judgment you must make is a fork in your life’s path; every option you face is a fork in the road, and every decision creates a new possible path; every choice, good or bad, takes us in a different direction. Along a new way.
Down one path your life will be very different than down another. As I said, it’s rare that these forks truly mean the difference of life or death; but enough bad choices will eventually get you so turned around that you’re walking away from the city, not towards it.
The more people use the path, the easier it is to follow. Yet if they’re all heading for a different city, or else just as lost as you are, that wide path isn’t necessarily the one you should be following (Matthew 7:14).
Any trail that is used that rarely will be overgrown by weeds; there will be no footprints, and little to distinguish it from the trails rabbits and deer create. Still, to be worthy of a trail at all, there has to be something. Some visible path, however slight.
I’ve walked on such paths through the jungle; paths that dwindle to just a faintly visible line through the scrub. And as long as you stay alert, you can stick to that path. But lose your focus for just a few seconds, ten steps off the true path, and suddenly you’re pointed somewhere else.
Not turned around –that comes later. But truly lost. I’ve been there too. I saved myself by realizing I was lost very quickly, and carefully retracing my steps. But what if I had been distracted, and kept going a little farther before I turned around? What if I had been looking back, instead of forward? (Luke 9:62).
Now if you happen to be walking straight towards the city and take a single step off of the path, will that prevent you from getting there? Of course not. But five, ten steps in a slightly different direction, suddenly you’re pointed somewhere else.
If you keep walking down a slightly wrong path, you might get a little closer to the city as you keep walking this way, so your steps may not be a complete waste of time… but unless you get back on the right path sooner or later, you will not find it.
And the farther you walk down the wrong path before you do that, the longer it will take you to find it again. So you don’t lose the true path because you make one wrong turn; but 5, 10, 200 wrong turns… and you’ll probably never find it again.
DETOURS
But you have to leave the path sometimes; because on a narrow, rarely-used path, there are bound to be hazards you didn’t see coming. When a tree falls across the path, you have to go around. Can you find your way back onto the path afterwards?
This wasn’t the route on the map; it wasn’t the route you expected; but when there’s been an avalanche, you have to detour whether you like it or not. Likewise in our lives, no one sees accidents, job losses, major illnesses coming. You just have to take it in stride, and find the best way back around the obstacle (2 Corinthians 4:6-12).
Because while these detours may not seem like the best path to the city, they are in fact part of the path God had in mind (Romans 8:28). As circuitous as your path on this earth might seem to be, each of these things can be part of the narrow way, if you treat them as just another day on the trail (Isaiah 42:16).
Every hiker knows that the dangers and difficulties down each path are not always obvious at the fork in the road. What seems like a wide path can quickly disappear into the brush, and a path that seems to lead in the right direction can turn a different way a mile or so down the trail.
Maps are not always accurate or up to date, and signs meant to mark the way fade and disappear –and those that remain are sometimes confusing –“Does “ahead” mean the path to the left fork or the right??” So finding the right path is challenging, and requires good judgment –good eyes to detect the signs and correctly interpret them.
And all of this is without anyone intentionally messing with the road signs to lead travelers astray; without anyone deliberately setting traps for unwary travelers. So your job, as a soul, is to detect the traps; study the maps; scout the terrain; listen to other travelers; then look at the trail and make a decision.
GUIDES ON THE PATH
When you’re walking along a lonely trail, not sure where you are or where you’re going, there are certain ways you try to get your bearings. Your destination will rarely be clearly visible on the horizon –not until you’re very close to it.
Until then, you’ll have to navigate based on the map, on the stars, and on the advice of fellow travelers… and of course the signs on the trail itself (tracks, litter, direction, etc.). Now clearly, the Bible’s words are the map; fellow travelers are fellow Christians; and the stars are the angels.
The map is perfect, the challenge is knowing where exactly you fit into the map. Let’s face it, it’s not always as clear as we’d like; largely because our moral compass does not, by nature, point north; which is why it must be bent towards true north (1 Kings 8:58).
It’s hard to read God’s map without a compass (which, not accidentally, is oriented around the north (Isaiah 14:13)), and even harder with a broken compass. Yet there are other ways to find north; without a reliable compass, you would navigate by the stars.
It goes without saying that the churches of the world are led by angels (Revelation 2-3), the stars of symbolism. If the map makes no sense to you, and your own compass is damaged, you naturally turn to the stars for help.
But most stars move around too much to be of much value as guides for navigation. Only a few, such as Polaris, actually continually point towards God’s Holy City –and even that, not precisely at it. The same is obviously true of the churches they lead.
Not knowing which of the disagreeing stars to trust, you’d certainly seek the advice of fellow travelers. They’re certainly more up to date than the map, but can someone who has never been to the city really help you find it? Can you really take their word for anything? Proverbs 14:15. When you think about it, it’s rather like Matthew 15:14.
The only fellow travelers who are helpful at all are those who can show you exactly where you are on the map, and how to read it so you won’t get lost again. After that, perhaps you’ll walk together with them for awhile; or maybe they will walk too fast for you, or be leading too many children and animals to keep up with you, and you’ll separate.
At the end of the day, it will always be your journey, and it will be up to you to take the often-disagreeing opinions of the confusing map, the stars, the pilgrims, and the signs of the trail itself, and weigh the choices and the risks, and start walking and hope for the best.
Because the only way to be certain not to find the Holy City… is to stop walking and settle down.
THE SOUL’S SPIRIT
Every day you have to make a thousand decisions. When to get up, what to wear, what to do, what to eat. And that’s before you even get to work, where more decisions and problems to solve await. And individually, these are pretty small decisions.
But at the end of the day, you just don’t want to solve another problem; you’re all choiced out –much like Moses was in Exodus 18:13-18. And so God took of the spirit upon Moses (Numbers 11:14-17) and put it on those others; they, in effect, became extensions of Moses’ spirit.
Their jobs would be to solve all the common problems, and leave it to him to solve the truly difficult ones –which he would be rested enough to pay attention to, since all the minor problems are taken care of. As spirits of Moses, their jobs would be to enforce the statutes of his soul; to judge as he would judge, and if anything unexpected came up, to get his input –not to judge the people for themselves.
This is, obviously, a pattern of the relationship between our own soul and spirit. We don’t need to decide every night “what time will I get up tomorrow?” because we make statutes, patterns that we live our lives on.
Every choice is a fork in the road. But you don’t need to judge each individual fork yourself; as a soul, you have the power to make a rule for all decisions like these. You can say “we’re trying to find the river, so let’s always take the downhill forks until we find it”.
This statute frees your soul from having to make a judgment at every step, by delegating all similar decisions to your spirit. This effectively trims many of the forks off of the trail for you. And that means less judgments to make, and less weariness.
Once a statute is set up, barring unexpected events, our soul never needs to think about it again. But if our spirit is lazy, it doesn’t enforce these statutes properly. It allows the heart to negotiate (“five more minutes!”) on statutes the soul set up for good reason.
What use would Moses have for a spirit without a backbone? One who couldn’t enforce his judgments? Or, worse, one which enforced his own version of Moses’ judgment? And so, to get our will done, our soul has to intervene –or not intervene, let the beast sleep late, and clean up the mess later when you’re late for work. Either way creates work for the soul, unnecessary work, which makes it weary.
Which in turn makes it easier for something to slip past it next time. Overworked and distracted by arguing with its fractions, it misses a turn which creates a bigger problem; which in turn creates… well, the chaotic, troubled lives of every single person you know, yourself included.
DIVISION OF LABOR
Consider a construction crew; there are three levels of authority; the crew, the foreman, and the owner. The beasts, the spirit, and the soul. Labor, middle management, and upper management. Even in the world, this is how authority is structured because it makes sense.
Now if the foreman of the crew is driving nails all day, how can he have enough time left over to also order those nails, hire people to drive them, and get paid for driving them? And if the executive has to come on the job site and make sure the house is built right, why is he hiring the foreman again?
It’s unreasonable to expect the soul to do all the work of an executive and also do all the work of a regular employee and the foreman. Likewise, your soul needs to be left free to think of the future, plan, and choose, while your beast and spirit take care of the day-to-day.
The soul shouldn’t have to continually decide things like bedtime and breakfast choices; routine choices should be just that: routine, and left to the spirit to manage. The more routine you have, the less your soul needs to be wearied.
The soul’s job is to make decisions at forks in the road; it shouldn’t have to reconfirm its decision every step. The whole POINT of a trail is that it is a PATH, and between forks there is very little choice of where you go along that path. And even beasts can put one foot in front of another down a clear trail without being told what to do!
Of course, the danger of routine is that the spirit insists on continuing the routine when things have changed. But a broken spirit wouldn’t do that; it dutifully follows the path until something unexpected happens, then asks the soul’s will (Psalms 40:8), just as God’s spirit delights to do His will… not His old routine. Because His ears were open! (Psalms 40:6-7).
EXECUTING ALGORITHMS
An algorithm is a set of rules –fences –designed to guide computers in calculations. Given a certain pattern on a Rubik’s cube, there is a clearly defined set of moves to solve it. To learn the area of a circle, there is a set of mathematical steps to find it.
We do the same things all the time; if I say “toxic…” you’re gonna want to say “masculinity”. If I said “herd…” you’re gonna want to say “immunity”. These things change with the spirit of the times, as different catchphrases are bandied about.
We have triggers to remind us to turn off the light when leaving a room; as children we didn’t, but those were drilled into us. “Drilled”, from a military term meaning to repeat until it becomes habit. These are just repetitions of a path that we walk down until we can do it in our sleep.
Notice that phrase; “in our sleep”, or “with our eyes closed” …we all use these phrases, which simply mean do it without our soul’s attention! You see, everyone already KNOWS these things! They know that knowing something well means knowing how to do it without even using their soul!
Drilling, habit, memorization, rote-learning, these are things which involve our spirit; we teach it a common path, consciously or otherwise, so that we don’t have to consciously make these choices later. Thus, freeing our soul to think while driving, or talk while knitting.
In any routine activity, the spirit should be guiding the hands, not your soul. Because it’s repetitive, and predictable, and you’ve done it before, so why is your soul required? But there is a reason why it’s so hard to rub your belly and pat your head at the same time; or, for some people, to walk and chew gum at the same time.
Your spirit shouldn’t be so insecure it needs constant guidance to do its job. Nor should it be so arrogant that it refuses to do it right, requiring the soul’s constant intervention. Its rules shouldn’t be confusing and contradictory, its algorithm should be refined by the soul to be as efficient as possible.
But if you can’t talk while putting a puzzle together, using a hammer, or chopping tomatoes, it’s a sign that your soul is so busy managing your fingers, it can’t manage your mouth. And it really shouldn’t have to be involved in that, because that algorithm should be managed by your spirit.
As we approach the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, we should find ourselves more easily able to simultaneously do three separate things, one with each fraction; the beast can run or chop vegetables or spin wool; while the spirit can listen to music or talk about routine things (memories or known facts).
All while the soul can play chess, plan ahead, look at things and actually see them, or talk about complicated things (new ideas, judging new thoughts), or listen to new ideas (which similarly require judgment beyond the spirit’s capacity).
There should be no loss of quality at any of these tasks, even though three different things are done at the same time. The beast should do its job without head-tossing; the spirit should do its job without hand-holding. And the soul can then do its job of judging the big issues, and not worry with the small ones.
And when a truly big problem comes, then all three fractions, competent at working separately, can focus their united attention on any single problem, working in harmony. When we do that, we are capable of incredible things (Ecclesiastes 4:12, 1 Corinthians 12:12).
A CROOKED PATH
There are many ways to paradise, and we all choose how hard our road must be. But the beautiful part is… we choose how hard our road must be by choosing how hard our road must be. Every road, every possible choice is before you every moment; some are harder than others, so choose wisely.
The best road is the fastest and easiest, but it’s narrow; the burden is light, but only if you have it properly balanced. The right way to walk is clear, when you pay attention. So when things go well, they go very well.
But when you make a few bad choices, you start to drift from the easy path. And if you’ve ever been hiking, just a few feet off the path the going is a lot rougher. A pleasant stroll through the woods quickly becomes exhausting when you are forced to clamber over rocks and hack your way through underbrush.
Thus, what could be a straight path becomes crooked. Rather than a straight line, it becomes a zig-zag as you avoid a variety of real and imagined obstacles; as you uncertainly hesitate between this landmark and that star’s guidance, this trail or that one.
Thus, your bad judgment has made your path crooked (Isaiah 59:8). If you simply choose a crooked path, that’s your choice (Psalms 125:5). This is your right, but if your path is crooked, there is no one to blame but yourself (Proverbs 4:26-27).
And yet these paths, these bad algorithms in crooked spirits can be cleansed. We can change our fences, streamline our way of life, straighten our road by purging our flawed statutes (2 Corinthians 7:1). A crooked spirit can be made straight… you just have to find your way back to the right path (Hebrews 12:13).
There are many ways that can be done. God can plow a path through the mountains and valleys for you (Isaiah 40:3-4). But the simplest way is just to teach you a better way (think about all the meanings of that phrase); (Psalms 5:8).
In a sense, that’s what God has done for you through these lessons; by telling you that you don’t have to, say, go to church, He’s removed a huge “detour” from your life; saved you a ton of steps on the path to life. This makes your path straighter –and saves your soul from getting as weary.
Usually, I like to sum up these lessons with a single verse. And there are tons I could choose… but instead, I think this time a cartoon says it better. The point of this lesson is…
Don’t be like Billy.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
In a literal sense, there is no true path in front of our literal lives. We can do anything we want in the next instant; eat healthy, get wasted, exercise, murder someone, run for president, read the Bible. All possible options are open to us at any given minute.
Yet there are things we know that we don’t do. Many of these are good; rape is bad, and that statute belongs in our mind. But we have tens of thousands of statutes in our mind, fences with varying degrees of strength; any one of which can be overwhelmed if the beast is determined enough.
And it is these statutes which create the path. Our life is an open field, we can go in any direction, do absolutely anything possible. But each statute we create “that’s not the kind of shoes I wear”, “that’s not ‘my kind of music’”, “I’m a visual learner”, and so on fences us in.
And to get around these fences, we must form a path, an algorithm –a way of doing something. But this path is artificial! We create the path with our own statutes, and the walls that surround us are erected by our own spirits! Thus, we create the path we think we are constrained to walk!
Thus, choosing the path is literally choosing our path. Because the way we choose our steps here determines the choices we have to make next. The statutes we erect determine how easy or hard the next leg of our journey is.
Marry, don’t marry; travel, don’t travel. Have kids, don’t. Go to college or be a farmer. Most of the time, God doesn’t care. Because God isn’t at the end of ANY of these paths! He walks the path with you, showing you how to walk the path (Psalms 27:8-11).
Oh look! There is one scripture that sums up this lesson after all. We are not walking this path to find Jesus, we are walking this path so we can walk it as He walked it (1 John 2:6)…Because it is the skill at choosing the path which IS the path.
Where we go, what we do, what we choose, for the most part they don’t matter at all. These choices just determine the sorts of choices you’ll face next; they establish boundaries, limiting your future choices to a narrower range.
But whether you’re a farmer predicting the harvest or a soccer mom mapping out her stops after school, what you do is less important than how well you do it. The particular path before us, the direction we travel, isn’t really important; the point is to walk every path before us wisely.
And so in a very real sense, how well we pick our way along the way before us, will determine if that is the way that leads to life! And whether we make the trail ultimately lead to paradise will determine whether we’re worthy to be there at all.