The Campfire Memoirs of Edward Thornwood

His eyes glowed like embers as he gazed into the fire that night. The moon and the stars cast down their light into the wooded terrain, placing shadows onto the earth's floor. Only the snaps and crackles of a well coaled fire brought the melody of the night. Like a hypnotic drug, he allowed the flames to take him deeper and deeper in thought.

The decision was one of both excitement and uncertainty, and the road was clear and he was ready to go. He had the entire thing planned out; where he was headed and how he would get there. The world was wide open and imagination would fuel the way. With one final pause, just to catch his breath, he set out....

Tracks of Life

Everyday we pass them by, hundreds if not thousands coast through our peripheral gaze; windows of life waiting to be lived. Where are we? Driving "our" car. Like a train set, set on its charted course, we continue to move round and round; tracks we've individually laid over time. One by one they went down- childhood dreams, college and career, the job, the "perfect one", purpose and expectation.

Here we go! set off into our future, destination: honestly, unclear. We build and build and continue to lay them down, often times forgetting to look up. We place so much of our focus on the road map to where we are going, that we build a routine, or lets say, a formula. A well respected friend of mine once said, "You look at God's will as a set of tracks that you have to go down, where I see it as a sphere. Look at two things: are you being obedient to the Lord? And are you walking in wisdom? Now, what do you want to do?" The scripture says, "that man sets (creates) his plans and the Lord orchestrates his steps."

I guess what I am trying to say is, maybe we need to get out of the formula, off the tracks. Re-focus on what's really on our hearts? What is the Lord saying to you? We only have this one life here on earth.