Still No Turning Back

Another place I hope to discover one day. I think I know where to begin looking! It's definitely somewhere in the Scottish Highlands (there is a technical reason for this - see below if you're into that stuff).

This post follows from the previous post - "No Turning Back". After a lot of recent heart searching, I've been encouraged by events in the last week or two that suggest there is no better place for me to be at the moment than right here. It is certainly the furthest "out the boat" I've ever been, and it continues to keep me close to my limits, but it is also full of many great opportunities. If I was to leave now, I would miss out on so much.

So in one sense we can't turn back, because time marches forward, and certain choices cannot or should not be undone. But in another sense we can turn back, and attempt to recreate life as it was before. It may of course be right to do this in certain situations, but not because we want an easy life. Jesus referred to this second kind - no-one who puts their hand to the plough and turns back is fit for the Kingdom of heaven.

In a previous post I talked about the "escape fantasies" that come when life is tough - places we create in our heads which we would love to escape to - life with all our favourite things, and all the tough stuff removed. Maybe this "Lost Glen" image is a projection of this fantasy.

A New Wine speaker once said that the only way to really fail is to quit. Deep inside I know that is true. So once again, for another week, in God's strength I pray I won't turn back, and I pray you'll have the courage to "keep on keeping on" too, whatever path you find yourself called to walk.

(Techie bits - the landscape is generated by fractal mathematical formulae in a piece of software called GeoControl which mimics nature's geological processes. The software is able to model different kinds of erosion, rock types etc, and one preset was called Scottish Highlands. I think they've got it pretty close!)

Comments

[bek]

it is encouraging as we march onward, to find others putting their hands to the plough, as well, and not turning back either. thank you. keep on going, brother!

[Jill]

Richard - what you say about not quitting really rings bells with the "don't quit, don't cave in" of Matthew 10 (Message version from Dream Blog). My week has been all turmoil at the start - even being prepared to lay down the whole thing. But it's also as if when the very core of what I thought I was called to was questioned, God has come back with a 'go girl' ...(I'll have to do this blog post by phone... I knew I wasn't a blogger!) Anyway - be encouraged and keep the pictures coming. As CS Lewis said: "We read[blog] to know we're not alone"

[M]

The Scottish Highlands are a place I'd love to visit one day too. Thanks for the inspiring picture!