I think there can be confusion on some Bible passages. We look for the most "logical" meaning in the moment, but sometimes we need to do more digging, in our hearts and in our understandings, to understand certain passages.
I've always known that going "the narrow way" meant I had to say no to some things. I had to thin down, clean out, move things over to a subordinate position, and even give things up. But is all that "thinning out" a permanent thing of less and less for me? Not really, not fully.
I feel that I have come to an increased understanding on this. A lot of things were first written to the society of the times, which mostly was an agrarian (farmer related) one and thus the many references to those times.
Early pre-king David was a keeper of sheep, or we'd say, a shepherd. He spent many hours in the field tending the sheep and entertaining himself and studying the sheep, and thinking about God!
As a shepherd, he would take the sheep from pasture to pasture, because sheep will eat down to the roots of the grass and then when they do that, the grass can't come up again and will run out, so they take the sheep from pasture to pasture.
Those usually consisted of going from mountainside to mountainside and the path from one mountain to another would often be a narrow path. The sheep couldn't just wander around anywhere, they had to get on the path for the next big place! They really had to pay attention to the shepherd, too.
When I learned this, I understood "the narrow way" better and have also since understood what this meant for my own life! I can have a season of prospering in a lot of areas, location, finances, relationships, fields of thought and study and experience, but I can also sometimes exhaust what I am getting out of that moment or certain season of time.
More Discoveries and Different Perspectives
Sometimes we can get over-familiar and start leaning towards our preferences and seeing things through that filter. We can let down our guard and presume things will just be these certain ways forever, because we are in familiar territory!
But the next place may not be like that! There are more discoveries and different perspectives. I am still me, but in a different environment! I am finding that when I get bored and restless, often God wants to take me to a new perspective, if I will cooperate with Him.
Just like those sheep, I have to go through a narrow way on a type of narrow mountain pass and even give up some things and some freedoms to do that. I have to "pull in" and pay attention and use my resources wisely and carry only what is needed to get there. I can't just lug around my three room walled bookshelf full of books, as a funny example for you here! I have to use me and my wits to get me there. I have to work to hear His Voice too, for safety and confirmations, especially in wisdom. My "own thing" could be dangerous!
I find this naturally in my most relevant thoughts, my ideas of freedom, my myriad of intended purposes and good if not great ideas! I have to let go of some old freedoms and comforts to get to a new place so I can expand some more. And to be successful, I have to do it His way, you know, letting go of some of my own ideas!
Now in the history of a number of these episodes, I start getting wiser too! Not "everything" is pertinent to every situation. I have to start learning how to trust God. I also learn that I can't go completely wild in the new area either! Oh I could, but it could cause me to miss some things like timing and then maybe even eating too much! It does not mean that I can't enjoy it.
To be lean and mean and ready for more, I need to keep in shape spiritually! The practical natural side of all this is easy to see and confront, and see the limitations that we put on ourselves.
But it happens in the spiritual side too! As young zealots we want to do everything and know everything we can. (At least I was that way.) But we can't be all things to all people, even to ourselves! We can get ahead of God and miss some instructions. Now seriously, we are all kids in the natural and in the Spirit.
I like making progress with God. I get a deep soul pleasure in that. So I am learning to take things a little easier at a time. You know it is possible to eat too many sweets, even if your body and tongue hates to admit it.
I need to be ready for the more narrow way so that I can find more green pastures and be happy communing with nature, my comrades and my good Shepherd. I need to be ready for the next narrow way. He will keep me fed, if I cooperate!
Pam Clark
