Day 10 - The Eternal Paths

The most pure meaning for the "ancient paths" in Jeremiah 6:16 is "eternal paths."  God is imploring us through Jeremiah to ASK for the eternal paths, those roadways that lead us to live our lives for what will go beyond this life.

Why does He tell us to ask for eternal paths?  Could it be because we have such a tendency to make this life our focus and our own happiness and achievements here on earth the important matters?  They do matter but they are not the eternal paths.  The eternal paths are those paths that lead us to live our lives by the two greatest commandments; to love the Lord our God with total abandon and to love others the way that we love ourselves (Matthew 22:36-40).  To love the Lord our God like that is the "most important, the principle commandment" according to the Amplified Bible. 

What a jolting reminder my husband I got this weekend about the brevity of life and our need to ask for the the eternal paths.  Our friend, and my husband's teaching partner for the last 15 years, literally dropped dead while on her treadmill this weekend.  Beth was a healthy 39 year old with much of life ahead of her.  She leaves behind two young sons and a husband who loved her.  She got up Saturday morning, drank a cup of coffee, talked with her sister on the phone and went to the basement to exercise while her husband and boys wrestled in the family room upstairs.  And in a moment, while exercising and enjoying life, God called her into eternity.  How could she know?  Did she leave anything undone, unsaid, unsettled?  Was there anything she might have done or said differently if she had known? Those of us who loved her are stunned. How could we have known?  Eternity comes in a moment.

Life is fragile and in the whole scheme of things, so very brief. James says that our life on earth is only a vapor. How long does your vapor, I mean your breath hang in the air on a frigid morning?  Seconds, maybe.  Such a vapor is the comparison to our lives, the length of our lives. The ancient paths, the eternal paths are the ones that Jesus walked on; doing the will of the Father, undoing the works of the devil as he healed bodies, souls, forgave sin and called many to follow after Him. 

As a follower of Jesus, the question begs to be answered in my own life; am I on the eternal paths?  God implores me in Jeremiah 6:16 to ASK Him to show me, lead me to the eternal paths and to WALK IN THEM.