One of my favorite past times was to walk through the “timber” or forest at my grandparents’ farm (that portion is now owned by my parents). It was an honor or rite of passage to finally be old enough to hike through there. And what better way and memory were hunting trips (often for rabbit and squirrel). When I got older and more aware of what and where I was walking through the timber, that farm had three types of thorns. Two out of the three I don’t know their names but one I do know is the wild honey locust tree which has thorns or spikes that can grow up to about 12 inches long (it makes you think of the large thorns or spikes used to crown Jesus prior to His crucifixion). In my opinion, walking through the timber in winter time is preferred because the leaves are gone which makes seeing thorny trees and brush easier to see and navigate. There are also a number of other benefits and reasons as well. But May 2025 I decided to take a short walk in the timber right after a rain because I wanted to see how high and how fast was the creek flowing. After arriving at the bottom of the hill where the creek was and I snapped photos and some short video clips of the fast-flowing water, I decided to head back to the top of this fairly steep hill. The creek’s headwaters start at a small or short decline but when one travels further north and then west, the steepness increases very quickly as well as how much hiking to get up and down the hill (one portion is nearly a straight drop canyon wall). I was nearly at the halfway point of this creek which meant a fairly steep incline. The path I came down and the path I chose to go back up were probably around a 65-75 degree pitch. Attempting to ford the high water and fast-flowing creek numerous times by walking south to get to the gradual climb out was not an option. Rather than the slippery and muddy path I went down, I chose a different direction that would take me through trees and lots of underbrush. Parenthetically I have hiked up and down these walls in numerous places and numerous times over my life so it wasn’t as if one path to choose was easier than any other with the exception of the one I went down because it was recently cleared by my dad with a chainsaw and tractor. Much of my climb from the creek bottom initially required minor course corrections due to needing available trees to grab onto to help me climb up the hill. But the higher I got, navigation through these trees became more problematic. Where it was a fairly brisk but careful walk down to the creek, this unmarked trail back out took two to almost three times longer to navigate. It wasn’t necessarily the steepness or the wet grass, which were bad enough. It was the constant having to stop, see which was the safest way to hike without getting tangled in these very sharp thorns. These gnarly vines with thorns meant either I was getting poked and scraped or my clothes were getting snagged. The higher I climbed toward the clearing, the worse the underbrush got (almost made me question myself whether taking the photos were really worth it after all). I was nearly out with maybe 15 yards from the clearing when I got trapped. Thorny vines and branches were literally everywhere. I could not very easily get out at all. I stopped and said a silent quick prayer to God asking for direction with how to get out from this situation that I walked into (excuse the pun). And going back any almost required going all the way back down to the creek, so that wasn’t much of an option.
A word was quickened to me yesterday morning during prayer and is found in Ephesians 5:15 (but I will initially provide verses 15-21 for context) which says, “See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of God.” The key word I wish to draw out is the word circumspectly which carries the understanding of avoiding or navigating a thorny path or dangers. And with that, I wish to further to look upon this simple thought as the Apostle Paul did a sufficient enough job with sharing his words found in these verses.
A path to avoid and to navigate away from with obvious signs of ropes, chains, large and scary creatures, etc. and decide not to pursue that path. But what about other paths in life that are not as easy to navigate. Speaking as a Christian toward Christians, for those whom alcohol or drugs were their vices, it is easy to not go to the parties or bars to avoid being around these negative influences and temptations. What if, though, the thorns which require circumspect walking are more subtle? What if they are relationships with someone of the opposite sex to avoid loneliness or that insatiable hunger for affirmation? What if they are negative influences by friends or family to have thoughts or to inject things into our perspectives? What if it is a job promotion that may require more time or may require more travel? What if we went through training or schooling to play an instrument or work on computers or to teach in a classroom and God desired to change our direction to something else entirely different (inspired by a recent testimony in the recent Trumpet issue)? What if the job required for us to not be as hard-lined in our convictions about gender? What if to keep relationships, we have to make choices that seem to be tougher to say no to for the sake of not being alone? What if the thorny vines are ministry opportunities that desire more of our time and involvement but it takes over our time we used to give toward personal prayer and Bible reading? Then there are more personal thorny vines. Bad attitudes, bitterness, racism or prejudice, complaining, tantrums, and the like. These are not thorns that come often but when they spring up, they trip up our walk and if we are not careful we find ourselves trapped when the frequency becomes too much.
Paul, fortunately, encourages us with some advice with how to clear the path in verses 17-21. By obvious brush, being drunk with wine would not be good. But Paul wasn’t necessarily talking about avoiding a Bordeaux, Seagram’s, or Coors Light. Being intoxicated clouds or reduces our vision, reaction time slows, and our attitude becomes less effective or sloppy. For the Christian in navigation, we need to be clear-headed. We need to make wise or careful decisions without knee-jerk responses or respond with incomplete information. Second, we are to occupy our minds, lips, and life with praise and worship. This doesn’t necessarily mean listening to K-Love all day and making a joyful noise when our favorite tune happens to come on. But it is exchanging negative for positive. It is to avoid the person who always seems to be the downer or complains often. It is to not allow despair, fear, worry, and anger be reactionary and immediate responses but to be quick to forgive, live toward God in victory, with an attitude of honoring God (Isaiah 61:3). This lifestyle of praise also changes our usual ungrateful and complaining attitude for one of thankfulness and gratefulness. I pose this question, who would be more grateful, a person who is given his favorite meal daily and then has to miss one despite knowing he will go back to his diet later or the person who has not had food or denied his favorite dish for a long period of time to then be blessed with food or his favorite meal? It will usually be the latter situation because when we don’t have, we are grateful for whatever we ever get. It is about being content (Philippians 4:12). What feeds our contentedness beyond prayer is accountability and relationship with the brethren. It is through these relationships that not only check our hearts and attitudes but help us to remain grounded in the things of God. All of these are things that we do in ourselves with the Lord’s help.
The final ingredient, despite being first on the list is intentionally my last one, and is what I call the most important ingredient: understand what the will of the Lord is. This is a proactive search and involves us asking God through prayer, exploration, and faith (Hebrews 11:6). As I have often said, our Christian life isn’t some Calvinistic or galactic pin-ball machine with God bouncing us around. This is the kind of life where God only intervenes through sovereign ways of the infamous lightning strikes or open/closed doors to direct and correct our steps. Or we can take a Diest attitude that God spun the universe into existence and then stepped away allowing us to just figure it out along the way. So long as we eventually come to some sort of conclusion for life and we are not committing the big sins, then “all roads lead to heaven”. But God desires to be personally involved in every detail of our life…and that very much includes knowing and desiring to know the will of God. When Saul of Tarsus was knocked off from his horse, he was given direct instructions from the Lord and to await further direction and instructions. And he did. We, impatient and desiring to be like God knowing what is best for our lives, want to “help”. Truthfully God may unfold a final or ultimate will or guide us toward that direction, but much of the details God will only unfold as we take our steps of faith toward that eventual destination (Hebrews 11:8-10 and 13-16). The incorrect (and perhaps ignorant) person may argue that it would be arrogance to desire to know God’s will. God will not unfold every detail and certainly not everything before we’ve even taken our initial step. But to just live life toward something and hope that we remained a Christian along the way is a waste of a life…not to mention there are thousands and thousands that perhaps we could have reached for Christ over our lifetime. But because we’re walking around aimlessly, we allow them to perish by excusing ourselves from responsibility and involvement. This is why God’s clarion marching orders found in Matthew 28:18-20 don’t need to be dissected under a microscope to understand it’s intention and audience.
Ultimately and obviously, I escaped from those thorns (with some bleeding scrapes) because I chose to walk circumspectly. Will we blaze ahead toward the unknown to collect things along the way? Or will we choose to walk circumspectly in and through the Christian life in the will of God?