An annual trek to the Louisburg Cider Mill is a fall adventure for the Kendall family dating back decades, and 2020 was no different, although 2020 disrupted nearly everything else.
Recently the owners added a maze to the carnival atmosphere, of bands, hayrack rides, and of course—the best cider in Johnson County.
Do you ever feel that you are walking in a maze in life?
When you are walking in the six-foot-tall corn, you can’t see where you are going. It’s guesswork at best to find your way through. It does help if you have a general sense of direction to help you get from west to east, start to finish.
When you don’t know which way to go in life, what do you do?
You can jump up in the air and get 6-12 inches above the cornstalks, but you do come back down.
You can go faster and be frantic, but that doesn’t help. I guarantee your blood pressure will rise.
You can yell for help, and if you are lucky, others will reply, kind of like playing Marco Polo, in a pool. But sometimes wisecrackers will tease and deceive, whom do you trust?
Recently, I talked to a friend who is in a difficult place. She feels like she is in a maze—it’s not clear which way to go.
Have you ever felt that way?
It seems that her path has unexpected turns and frustrating roadblocks. Can you relate?
We need God’s perspective. From His vantage point, the way through the maze is evident. He knows if our left turn is taking us to a dead end.
Here’s the excellent news. God doesn’t shout at us from the heavens; He is willing to walk with us right where we are in the middle of the disorientation through the presence of His Holy Spirit.
God told Abraham to leave his homeland and “go to the land He would show him.” That may sound a bit like you will be walking through a maze. And, in reviewing the story of Genesis, it might look like that’s what happened.
God got Abraham to the promised land by leading him every step of the way. By the end of the story, Abraham was called a “friend” of God.
There is an intimacy that develops when one has to trust for every step. Our calls for help are answered. When we follow the instructions we are given, we receive more clarity.
While we trudge through the lower story that is our life, God is stewarding the upper story of redemption and kingdom-of-God fulfillment.
We have daily choices to make to invite the Spirit’s leadership. It takes humility to follow, but when we do, our life’s story joins the greater story arc, and we sense we are a part of a grand design. We begin to see where the trials of our lives have a purpose.
We have what we need to take the next step.
The maze is where we connect with God at a deeper level than we would if we could see the end from the beginning.