A Fork In The Path

Galatians 1:11-24 (Click it)

I was on a hike through the mountains the other day when I came across a sign that said, "Lever ahead. Do not pull." I thought the sign to be placed in an odd place, but thought nothing more of it. As I traveled down the path a few hundred yards another sign appeared which read, "Lever getting closer. Do not pull." The message from these signs began to fill my thoughts as I focused on the question of why should I not pull the lever.

A few hundred yards more down the path I came across another sign, this time it read, "Pulling the lever will bring unrecoverable damage to the world. Do not pull the lever." Now I was getting spooked. As I began to wonder what kind of unrecoverable damage pulling the lever would bring I came to a fork in the path. I paused, wondering which way to go. Both trails were perched on the edge of the mountain, leaving no room to get around. To the right was a friendly snake (yes, there's such a thing as friendly snakes) with a sign above his head which read, "Hi. My name is Nate." To the left was a lever.

It hit me that this was the lever I was being warned against - the sign that said, "This is the lever. Do not pull." may have helped me realize it as well. I had to figure this out; on the one path I would kill a friendly snake because in order to get by Nate I had to throw him over the edge of the trail. On the other path I would cause unrecoverable damage to the world because in order to get by I had to pull the lever. I had an honest struggle as I didn't want to kill any of God's creation, big or small.

I sat at the fork of that path for hours. You see, I knew that the end of the trail was just around the turn, no matter which trail I took. It was getting dark and if I went back I would be caught in darkness and be unable to move at all. I had to go forward, and I had to go forward soon.

I realized what had to be done, got to my feet, and went to the right, pushing the friendly snake over the edge and feeling very sad in doing so. As I came to the end of the trail I was confronted by the trail's keeper. She said to me, "I know you have chosen to rid the trail of the snake rather than cause damage in this world. May I ask why?"

I thought for a bit and responded, "I simply realized it was getting late and I didn't want to be caught in darkness, so...better Nate than lever."

We will all come to forks in the path along our journey. The choice as to which trail to take will not always be an easy one. All we can do is hope we make the right choice and to make that choice fully understanding the results.