level paths

"The way of the just is smooth;

the path of the just you make level.

Yes, for your way and your judgments, 

O LORD, we look to you;

Your name and your title

are the desire of our souls.

My soul yearns for you in the night,

yes, my spirit within me keeps vigil for you...

O LORD, you mete out peace to us,

for it is you who have accomplished all we have done."

(Isaiah 26:7-9,12)

God draws straight with crooked lines... the same way he makes "the path of the just" level... by continuing to order our days in the way they should go. 

That level path doesn't always seem level to us, though, does it? More often than not, it at least looks rocky, if not downright treacherous - strewn with all manner of sharp rocks, deep holes, and debris. But at the end of it all, Isaiah has it right - "for your way and your judgments, O Lord, we look to you" - God's idea of level is not our idea of level - his idea of perfection is not our idea of perfection. God's ways are not always our ways. We look to him for his way of making things "level" or "perfect" - not for our own gratification. 

Isn't it true that our restlessness, our wanderings, even our discontents, are born from our need for that level path - the need of our souls to be fulfilled by the perfection of God? Yet in the dark night that is this life we lead, God's way... his idea of level, his idea of perfection... so often seems obscured from our view. In our longing for fulfillment, our yearnings in these nights, and through our many failings, it is difficult to keep vigil for the Lord, and easy to lose the peace he offers us... until we are brought back to the realization that indeed, he brings us peace when we let him in to do his good work in our lives - to make our paths level... because he has "accomplished all we have done."

+Peace and good.