And HE will make STRANGE your path!

Eons ago … truly eons ago … Chris and I found ourselves teaching Proverbs 3:5-6 to a motley group of students sitting in a converted double-wide trailer which was being used as the Sunday school room for the youth group at Southpark Baptist Church. I know, it sounds like a low-budget movie scene, but alas it’s true. As we sang “and He will make straight your path”, little did we know how true the words would ring almost 20 years of marriage, 3 kids and another country later.

We have no radio in our van. We do have a radio in our hall closet, that has sat in the box in which it came in, almost 2 years ago, that hasn’t been installed. No radio for this music loving bunch of Elledge’s means singing in the car.

This past Friday, as I was escorting the queen (a.k.a. Libby) to school in our nonraido equipped van, we sang. We have quite the repertoire of songs … even have tossed about the idea of a mother and daughter CD. One of our favorites is the above mentioned diddy, Proverbs 3:5-6. We have a little harmony, a little repetition of the chorus … it’s quite nice if I do say so myself. The queen is 7 years old. She has been singing this song for at least … 7 years (she came out of the womb singing – she’s that gifted and I’m not exaggerating!) As she was wrapping up with a big finish, I noticed her singing … “and He will make STRANGE your path.” If you check your local Bible, the verse actually says, “and He will make STRAIGHT your path.”

That morning while eating breakfast, or perhaps the morning before, Parker the precious, Libby the queen and I read a Psalm that said something about God making our paths straight. We talked about what that meant … to them. So, being the ever mature one in the bunch, I took the opportunity to make a life message come alive right then and there in the van with Libby’s misquote of scripture. Wrong. I just laughed out loud. Perhaps not a very strong confidence builder for the queen but I couldn’t help myself.

“Libber’s … do you know what that song really says? It says … He will make STRAIGHT your path … not STRANGE your path.” She laughed, I laughed … life went on.

When I returned to my Chris at home, I told him the story. Out of his ever profound mind came the following … “She’s not so off is she?”

Let that sink in … He will make STRANGE your path.

Following God leads you down some strange paths. I won’t lie. Sometimes I’ve wondered if He had some strange cosmic joke he was playing and I was the pawn he was using to communicate the punch line. Sometimes I’ve wondered if He forgot the path He set my feet on … and the road map to go along with it. Sometimes I’ve thought it was too good to be true and I wasn’t a worthy recipient of the gifts along the path. Sometimes the pain was too tangible, I had to stop on the path to let out a battle cry.

And then, I smell the coffee on the breath of my Savior friend (my Jesus drinks coffee) saying:

Trust me – with all your heart – and lean not on your own understanding.
In all your ways – acknowledge me – and I will make STRAIGHT your STRANGE path.