Traveling out of the mist......

Awhile ago I ran across the poem "Out of the Misty Flats". It really spoke
to me.

To every many there openeth
A way, and ways, and a way.
And the high soul climbs the high way,
And the low soul gropes the low,
And in between on the misty flats
The rest drift to and fro.
But to every man there openeth
A high way and a low -
And every man decideth the way his soul shall go.

- John Oxenham

I had reached the age of ....um, cough..... I had reached "A certain age",
and I was disheartened to realize that I WAS in the Misty Flats. STILL in
the Misty Flats. Not on the low way for sure, but certainly not in the high
way.

How did this happen?  Shouldn't I have been farther along? I certainly
didn't set out for it happen. It wasn't intentional. I started my adult life
as someone who newly committed her life to walking and following Christ, a
mother, a nurse, and a wife of a man studying for ministry. High hopes.
Great Expectations....... and then. Then "life" happened. Business happened.
Achieving happened. Disappointments happened. Slowly but slowly I found a
seemingly comfortable place among the throngs in the Misty Flats.

It's misty in the Misty Flats. The mists, which can seem so beautiful if
looked at from afar, subtly blur your vision of what is ahead. Sure, I saw
where I hoped I was going, but, because I was in the mist, I didn't even see
the High Way. I just saw more mist.

Being in the Misty Flats can prevent you from seeing and knowing that there
IS a higher "way".

As we drive through Loveland, Colorado, heading for the Big Thompson Canyon
which will take us into Estes Park, we sometimes see a mist on the lowlands
before the canyon. We can't see the mountains ahead. We sometimes can't even
see the entrance to the canyon. We KNOW it's there, but we just cant see it.


And that's how it was for me. High hopes at the beginning. Great promises
and plans to live my life for the Lord, but I think I got stuck in the Misty
Flats. The mist of business and doing and fighting off one disappointment
after another ( the same kind of disappointments we all have) , and even the
mist of "Serving God" preventing the High Way of walking intimately, moment
by moment with God.

I thought I was in the High Way, but, if truth be told, it sure didn't seem
very "high". So bear with me if you'd like to , and over time I'll share how
I'm making my way out of the mists and on to the High Way.