Matthew 7:13–14 (NASB)
13 “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. 14 “For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.
One of the most memorable lessons I learned as a young adult that rings forth in me from time to time was from my college advisor. Dr. Frank James and I were walking across campus one day headed to his office, we had come close to our building and there was a path that had been a short cut treaded out across the grass. I began to take this path and he said to me “don’t be a converger, be a diverger” and then he continued in our conversation as we continued walking on the sidewalk. Nothing else on those words followed for he knew, that as a mathematician, I knew what converge and diverge meant; and as an analytical logical thinker he did not have to elaborate or explain what he said. He knew that I would make the connection; that I would ‘see’ what he was talking about and that, as my advisor, I knew what he meant.
See, the sidewalk had been laid out by the designers and planners of the university’s infrastructure; but short cuts across the grass had been paved out by those who decided they have not only a quicker way but a better way. The sidewalk was created by the designer as a means to get you to where you are going while preserving the landscape, that which had been planted to grow, thrive, and enhance the area of the path you are walking on, and in its own way give to the natural cycle of life.
The short cut that had been treaded out by students, and some staffers as well, started numerous years before; perhaps by someone late for their 8 o’clock class and made permanent by others who, not necessarily late for class, but they came to that point of reaching their destination and saw this path and decided to take it.
I am quite sure you, as I have, heard all my life, ‘don’t walk on/across the grass.’ But somehow, when you see a path going through the grass, there is a ‘pulling’ to take that path.
Whether to continue on the sidewalk that has been prepared for the very purpose of walking or to take the treaded path that has been presented, it takes a choice. Whether to converge to travel the way of what looks like many before you have done or to diverge from the common and continue on the right way, the way that has been prepared, designed, designated for you to take takes making a choice.
There is a way that has been prepared for us that will lead to our progression in the things of God; and there is a way that is presented to us as one that it will lead to progression.
We are confident of that prepared way in:
Jeremiah 29:11 (KJV)
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
Philippians 1:6
For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.
Psalm 138:8
The Lord will accomplish what concerns me; Your lovingkindness, O Lord, is everlasting; Do not forsake the works of Your hands.
Psalm 37:23
The steps of a man are established by the Lord, And He delights in his way.
We are cautioned of the presented way in:
Proverbs 16:25
There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.
We, as destined people of God, as purposeful people for the Kingdom must not do what is commonly done by others to progress but must be determined to do what is called for by our Father.
Matthew 7:13–14 says,
13 “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it.
14 “For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.
The course of Saints has been designated for us and God provides us directions as to our embarking upon, enduring, and engaging that course. But along the way, we will inevitably be presented with an alternative course boasting to produce the same fruit of our destined course.
We must be discerning of what is of God course for us and decipher what is the alternative way enticing us to deviate from our true path to progressing.
Though the way presented may be popular it is fleeting. What is popular, what is common is not always what is right; it is not what is your truth nor what is your path.
Thus, we must have a determination to remain on the course designed for us and be devoted to traveling The Way established for us in our pursuit of progressing toward who God desires us to be and toward fulfilling what God assigned to our hands.