One of my favorite activities in the fall is to go outside and do a corn maze. It’s fun to wander around in plants that dwarf you and really exhilarating when you find your way back out again. And there’s always that little bit of fear that you’ll never find your way out that adds to the excitement.
Well, that fear was a bit too much excitement for my kids. We went out as a family during the daytime. The corn was about 6 feet tall and my husband is about 6’5″. The kids and I, however, are somewhat (a lot) shorter.
After the first 15 min of running and giggling, my kids seemed to notice that they were lost. Not only lost, but lost in a giant field of corn that was twice as tall as them! They could not see any way out. My daughter, generally dramatic, cried, “We’re going to be lost forever!”
Very calmly, my husband assured them that we would be fine and he could see the way out. He was pretty sure we needed to go left.
We did go left, until another family came back towards us from that direction, telling us it was a dead end. Now my son, who is not usually so dramatic, starts to freak out.
My husband still insists we need to go this direction. “But the other family said no,” I said, starting to get anxious myself now that I am facing 2 impending pint-sized melt downs while lost in a corn maze.
We turned back and walked away from the path he suggested. A few minutes later, when the kid’s anxieties reached fever pitch, we committed the cardinal sin of cutting through the rows of corn where there was no path to get onto the wide exit lane. (Sorry Gillis Hill Farms.)
Now, why was this such an issue? Why were my kids so convinced that we were doomed to spend the rest of our lives in the cornfield? Because we did not trust the one person in our group who could see the way out.
The three of us were not able to see over the obstacles in front of us. We were so consumed by the limited information we could see that we forgot we had a member of our party who could see past it. And when a family we did not know told us the way ahead was a dead-end, we trusted them over a member of our own family.
Sometimes in life we do the same. We see the troubles in front of us and we are convinced there is no getting around them. Other people assure us it is hopeless. And we listen and agree.
All the while, God is reminding us that he is tall enough to see over the problem. If we would listen to him, he would lead us on the right path. But we too often ignore him and follow our own anxieties and the recommendation of people who truly don’t know any better than we do. We end up creating our own solutions which are usually more destructive than if we’d just taken the path God suggested.
And by the way, hubby was right. If we had gone left, we would have circled back around to the exit lane.
Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.