The Paths in the Woods

The lower path of the wood comes first.  It has the most beautiful flowers.  At the end of
the path there is a sign post.  One of the arrows is marked Selfish Decisions.  If you
follow the sign to Selfish Decisions you will end up on the lower path again, past the
beautiful flowers on the firm comfortable gravel but back to where you were before,
never getting any deeper into the wood.  One man stood on the lower path praying loudly,
"God, make the beautiful flowers go away, make them go away!"

One of the arrows is marked Celibacy.  The path to Celibacy is soft and wet and very
painful to walk on unless you have the right kind of shoes.  Some people walked on to
the path to Celibacy and were cursing it.  "Celibacy, celibacy, should I go on being
miserable?"  All their shoes had holes in them that were letting in water.

One of the arrows is marked Total Commitment.  A short distance down the path to total
commitment there was a raging river but there were stepping stones across it.  Many
people were afraid of the stepping stones and turned back.  But those who turned back
never saw the beautiful places on the other side of the river.  One woman stood on a
stepping stone and screamed, 'I'm falling, I'm falling!"  A big man walked on to the stones
and helped her across to the other side.

Another arrow is marked Be a Christian On Your Own.  The scenery here was as beautiful
as the scenery on the other side of the stepping stones but the ground was steeper and the
path was muddy and rocky.  Many of the most gifted Christians went this way.  Christian
doctors, Christian teachers, Chrisitian politicians, writers and musicians.  I helped up a
Christian who had fallen on this path.
"Thank you," he said.  "I'm a Christian astronomer.  I wrote the most beautiful book about
creation.  It was known all over the world.  It's so kind when other Christians visit this path
to help those who have fallen, even though we thought we would never need you."

I returned to the sign post on the hill.  Another sign pointed down a path which hardly
seemed to be there at all.  Is that a footpath? I asked myself.  If you looked very
carefully you could just about make out a depression in the grass, the thistles
and the weeds.  The arrow said The Path to Enlightenment.  An old lady came along
the path slashing the vegetation before her with a sickle.
"I have spent my whole life on the Path to Enlightenment," she said.  "It is very grassy and
very muddy.  It is such hard work trying to cut your way through it.  It goes on and on for
thousands of miles and it leads away from here.  I was a teenager when I started on the
Path to Enlightenment, now I am old.  I was lucky to find my way back here.  I dare not risk
the stepping stones.  I am too old and frail.  My life has been wasted.  I will spend forever
on the lower path, with the easy gravel path and the pretty flowers, and shall not see the
most beautiful places of God."  I noticed that we were both wearing solid shoes.
"Come along the path to Celibacy," I said.  "It is not steep or rough ground, it is simply cold
and wet, but it can't hurt you if you are wearing the right kind of shoes."  We walked along
the path to Celibacy together.  We reached an area where the grass was a deeper green
than anything we had seen before.  The sky looked green in the glow of the grass.  In the
distance were some mountains that shone with all the colours of the rainbow.  As we
walked along the road to the mountains we met a large group of men and women.  I
eventually lost sight of the old lady.  An angel blocked the road.
"Can't we go on to the rainbow mountains?" I asked.  "They are so beautiful.  I don't want
to go anywhere else now."
"You must go back to the lower slopes, to the easy gravel path," said the angel.
"But why?  The gravel path is for lazy weak Christians," I said.  "Not people like us.
And those mountains are so beautiful.  I'm sure that's where God wants us to be."
"Go back to the easy gravel path," said the angel.  "Look for people who are wearing strong
enough shoes and see if you can persuade them to cross the stepping stones or to walk
the path to Celibacy.  If they are wearing sandals or trainers they will not survive the path to
Celibacy but you must offer to help them across the stepping stones."