When all roads do not lead to Rome!

There is a certain satisfaction in completing a way-marked circular ramble in unfamiliar surroundings. It’s as much to do with trust as it is with one’s own capabilities – the thought that someone has walked this way before and placed signs for others to follow. That last stretch at the end of a long walk in beautiful countryside is something to savour, recognition that you have achieved something to be proud of.

But what happens if you get to the end and it is not where you started? What if you take a wrong turn and end up lost? That happened to us in France. Two walks, both way-marked in yellow. We followed one, and thought we had completed it, but in fact had taken a wrong turn and ended up somewhere on walk number two. We could not find our car and more importantly could not understand where we had gone wrong. We stood at the junction of two roads, route map in hand, totally perplexed.

There is an unsaid prayer which accompanies such moments, and it says ‘Oh God, what now?!’

The answer in our case came from a battered old Renault which pulled up, the driver enquiring, in French, if we were lost. There then followed a slightly surreal fifteen minutes where the driver, a slightly drunk farmer who couldn’t speak English or read maps offered to drive us to our car. By this he meant driving at break-neck speed down tiny country lanes in the vain hope that we might spot where we started. Eventually, more by luck than judgement we stumbled upon our car, looking rather forlorn in the corner of its isolated parking place. We thanked our rescuer profusely, wished him well and continued on our way.

Two questions come to mind. How does God answer prayer? Is it in a blinding flash of divine inspiration or via a slightly drunk French farmer? Secondly, how easy is it for us to convince ourselves that we are on the right road, when all along we have taken a wrong turn which will lead us to real uncertainty? What do we do in such circumstances? Do we convince ourselves that we are right and all we need to do is continue down the road we’re currently walking, or do we stop and acknowledge that we are in need of rescue?

And having acknowledged that we need help, how ready are we to accept it from unexpected places? Do we wait for divine revelation, or accept the assistance of someone who, though they could quite easily drive past, stops and asks if we require assistance, even of they are not the obvious choice we would make for a knight in shining armour?

Jesus told a parable of a Good Samaritan who did just that. More importantly is the Bible’s insistence that, in times of crisis ‘Our help cometh from the Lord!’