Path Pondering

“Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established. Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil.” (Pr 4:26-27 AV)

Most decisions do not need to be made as quickly as we make them.  Pondering the step which we are about to take will ensure we are making the best choice possible.  Impulsive decisions are often wrong decisions.  Note also our preacher instructs his son to ponder not just the step, but the path.  This would mean more than one step.  This would mean a general direction.  He goes further and tells his son not to allow anything to turn him one way or another once the direction has been chosen.  This is very sound wisdom.  A path is a general direction.  Steps may altar slightly, but the path never does.  What we want to consider this morning is the instruction to ponder.  To think it all the way through.  To know the goal and have a clear and general path to that goal is the advice here.

Sorry, but another example from my hunting days.  I grew up learning to hunt on the side of a foot hill.  At an elevation of 3,000 feet, this foot hill had many ravines.  Knowing where the ‘big ravine’ was improved your chances of navigating through the woods in the general direction one wanted to go.  Uphill was west.  Down hill was east.  Knowing these general directions would assist greatly in getting back to the cabin.  However, in between where one was and where one could be were steep ravines.  The hill side was also very steep.  Knowing where that big ravine helped in that it had to be crossed on only one of three places which were safe to cross.  If one confused the big ravine with another ravine, he may get a bit stuck and put himself in an unsafe or tenuous position.  Such was the case for me one deer season many years ago.

I had started my decent.  Thinking I had the big ravine to my left, or north, I headed downhill.  Watching for the famed “crossing” it never came.  This decent was steep.  There was snow on the ground.  There were places I had to use trees as breakers lest I slip and plummet several yards downhill.  Then I came to a steep gorge which has a stream at the bottom.  This drop off was a cliff that dropped about seventy-five feet.  Knowing I could descend no more, that I had missed the crossing, and that I mistook the ravine to the left as the big ravine, I was in a fix.  In front of me and to my left was an impassable cliff and ravine.  The only choice I had was to head back uphill to get my bearings.  The problem was, it was a snow covered and very slick hill side.  I had no choice.  The moral of the story is, I should have pondered before I assumed.  I should have headed across hill, or north, until I recognized familiar ground.  I should have back tracked to find my old foot prints in the snow rather than think I could forge a new path.  In fact, it should have dawned on me that as I descended, I found no old foot prints.  I didn’t ponder.

The morale of the story and the point of our proverb is to take the time to consider the path we should take.  This also assumes we know where we believe the LORD would have us end up.  Many head down the path of life with no clear goal in mind.  We just experience life and deal with the consequences as we go.  There is no object at the end of our race.  There is no pursuit which can be gained.  Life is one big exploration without any regard to the consequences of steps.  Solomon is showing great wisdom here.  Life is about planning.  A life that is unplanned fulfills nothing.  A life planned accomplishes purpose of life and brings greater joy than going willy-nilly through life hoping for the best and complaining when it doesn’t turn out that way.  Ponder the path.  Make a plan.  Then, do not deviate from it unless God supernaturally changes your direction.