Around or Through

I'm a pretty lazy person.  I like to be comfortable, I like things to be easy, and I like to know where my next step is going to land.  No drama, no stress - that would suit me just fine.  If I see a puddle in my path, I invariably go around it, not through it.  No sense getting my shoes dirty if I don't have to, you know?  I mean, who knows what sort of yuck lurks in the bottom of that puddle!

As I was reading my Bible this morning it struck me that God frequently likes us to go through, not around.

Your way was through the sea, your path through the great waters; yet your footprints were unseen.  You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.       Psalm 77:19-20

 God could have led his people around the sea.  It would have been a more known, and probably more comfortable, way to go.  But He didn't.  He led them through it.  Removing the water from their path, but not from their sight.  Taking them on a path straight into the unknown where absolute trust and faith were required.

And so he leads us, through the unknown territory where the dangers and difficulties are well within our sight, and absolute trust and faith are required.  A bit scary, isn't it?  Until you read this -

In you our fathers trusted; they trusted, and you delivered them.  To you they cried and were rescued; in you they trusted and were not put to shame.    Psalm 22:4-5