Taking the high route

Being on sabbatical gives me more opportunity to sit in the back yard and ponder basic truths. The opening prayer from my devotional book today was:

Loving God, clothe me in yourself and enable me to live and serve after the pattern of Jesus. Amen

--A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and Other Servants.

As I pondered the pattern of living and serving Jesus lived out, I noticed the behavior of our backyard squirrels. Wherever the go they almost always choose to travel above ground, even when walking on the ground would get them there quicker and easier. There are two trees in our backyard that are far enough apart that the branches don't intermingle. Rather than walk from one tree trunk to the other, the squirrel chose a longer route along the top of our chainlink fence to get from one tree to the other. It seems to be deep in their character to choose the high route, even when a little longer and more involved.

There is a spiritual metaphor in this for me. That choosing the high route . . . Jesus' pattern of living and serving . . . become deep in my character. I pray I get to the place where the high route becomes my default choice . . . and that it happens so naturally I don't even notice it any more . . . I just do it.

I can't get to that place, none of us can, without God enabling us. I don't make high route choices on my own that often. The key, for me, is to stay consistently alert to God's voice and the Spirit's leading. Perhaps that is my greatest challenge on the spiritual journey.