The Maze

Today was a field trip day, and I agree with a fellow teacher/blogger that these days are exhausting! First, we went to Birmingham to visit the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church and the Civil Rights Museum. We finished the trip with an afternoon at DeSoto Caverns, and if you've never been there I'd highly encourage you to go!

At DeSoto Caverns, one of the activities is a maze in which students try to collect stamps at three checkpoints and make their way back out of the maze. Last year I almost got lost in the maze...so this year I decided to join some other adults at a "look out point" where we could see a large portion of the maze and attempt to "help" students find their way out. We cheered when students were going in the right direction and shouted instructions of correction when they had lost their way. It was hilarious to us that even when we said, "Hey___, you are going the wrong way", many of the students would look questioningly as if to say, "Are you telling me the truth or are you lying?" We'd say, "We wouldn't lie to you, turn around and go the other way!" And do you know that some of them would STILL try their way first before realizing that our instructions were the right path to follow?

It's funny how God speaks sometimes...but tonight as I was winding down and getting the field trip filth off me, I was thinking of how much fun I'd had playing and shouting instructions at kids today. Then it hit me - how many times is God standing at the "look out point" in my life, shouting instructions of correction when I lose the best path for my life? How many times do I question Him, and then STILL try "my" path, only to realize that HIS way is perfect and best? Is it really possible that my disobedience and subborness related to trusting God completely could be compared to that of my 11 year old adolescent students? Ouch.