Guideposts

I wrote a book review this week about a book I just read - The Story of Edgar Sawtelle.  As I reflected on the book, I was thinking about the functionality of guideposts in our lives.  Quite literally, we rely on things like street signage, directions on a medicine bottle, recipes, etc.  Those "guideposts" inform our decisions and actions whenever we cannot rely upon our own knowledge and experience for that type of information. 

For many of us, people like parents, spouses, teachers, & pastors are our guideposts too.  We feel that, as long as their presence is a part of our life, we cannot veer too far off track.  They mark the edges of the path we are walking.  They assure us we are headed in the right direction, and they may even mark out the path ahead of us. 

What happens when a guidepost is removed or blocked though? It can feel very unsettling and create anxiety, because we rely on those guideposts so much.  But the truth is - parents die, teachers retire, pastors are assigned to other congregations, and so forth.  Friends and lovers fade out of our lives when we least expect it.  In Edgar Sawtelle, Edgar is mute, but his family trains dogs. So Edgar teaches the dogs sign language so that he can communicate with them, giving them signals, directions, and even praise.  He refuses to allow an unconventional means of communication to hamper his ability to do his family's work.    Likewise, the dogs adapt to having someone make hand motions to them, rather than hearing commands spoken our shouted.  They make do. 

The alternative is to believe we are helpless and waste time wandering about aimlessly through our lives, waiting on someone to be a leader or mentor for us so we can find our way.  There is a saying that we don't know what we are capable of until we are forced to endure it, and I believe that to be true.  I never would have thought I could manage to be a single mother of two children without the "guidepost" of a husband.  But I'm doing it, and doing it well.  I had to learn to rely on myself more, to educate myself on certain things, and to be braver and stronger than I was.  They key is to know oneself completely, to be kind to yourself, to challenge yourself, and hopefully to rely on God and his word to lead you through life's challenges and dilemmas.