IS THIS THE RIGHT WAY HOME?

Is This the Right Way Home?

Again, I have been reading Rosalind Goforth's book, 'Climbing' and have been inspired to share with you some of what I have been reading. There is much wisdom and insight in this book and it is worth reading.

"And when the man that had the line in his hand went forth eastward, he measured a thousand cubits, and he 

brought me through the waters; 

the waters were to the ancles.

Again he measured a thousand, and 

brought me through the waters; 

the waters were to the knees. Again he measured a thousand, and brought me through; 

the waters were to the loins.

~Ezekiel 47:3,4~

Rosalind was sharing her discouragement while in China on a tour with her husband where she was speaking to many Chinese women. She was sharing the many times the Lord met her with answered prayer when she needed to speak and because of sick children and sleeplessness was unable to prepare as she would have liked or her husband was able. She shares of a time when she was so tired that she was nodding off on the platform. Her mind was so foggy and she had no idea what she would say when her turn came to speak. 

She says, "As I rose to address that great audience, I seemed to feel the Lord beside me. My mind then cleared, and for an hour the audience listened with great stillness. The Lord had heard my desperate cry and had given calmness and power. No one, I believe, knew what that meeting meant to me. He had, as often before and since, just brought me through!"

This story reminded me of many times that the Lord brought me through days of homeschooling when my children were little and I had older ones needing help and little ones needing to nurse or changed. How encouraging it would have been to have read this book then, or to have had the encouragement of an older woman to come along side me and tell me it would be alright, and to teach me what I needed to know to grow in the Lord. It is so much harder to learn by trial-and-error!! 

The house we used to live in had water problems. Over the years, there were many, many times that we had water in our finished family room. I would have to roll the sectional sofa up the stairs to rescue it from the approaching water. All sorts of school stuff would have to be taken upstairs, upsetting the order of our home, creating chaos and havoc in its wake!! But the Lord brought us through!!

We solved one source of the water issues by building a garage on the end of the house a step higher than the rest of the house and making the driveway higher also. We had springs around our property and under our house...a blessing when water is in short supply but not when it was in abundance!!

One year, the rains were upon us and we spent all night sucking up water in two water-vacs as fast as it was coming in!! As I was vacuuming all night I sang "Trusting Jesus" with the hymn book propped on the shelf holding our shoes. Jesus was faithful and brought us through!! There are many other times when He has been faithful. Even this week, He has been faithful in my life when I dipped down into a valley. He is always there waiting for us to 'cry out' for Him just like this godly missionary has shared that she did many times in her experiences in China many years ago. She shares her journey in climbing as the Lord brought her through.

Another experience which Rosalind shares in her book, "Climbing" is again better given directly from her. So I will give it to you as a quote:

"As I recall the days spent in that room, it all seems one of the darkest, hardest physical experiences of my life. I had again caught a severe chill and was feverish and in pain. I forced myself to attend the first few meetings but finally had to give in. I tried to get war with a hot water bottle and everything my husband could pile on me on the brick bed (sleeping on a brick bed?! none of us have ANYTHING to complain about!!) But it was no use. I simply got colder and colder. As my husband left for the meeting, I rose and began to pace the rough, earthen floor, crying aloud in agony, "O Lord, have You no pity? Oh, help me! Why should I suffer so?"

"Just then the two-leaf door was flung open and a coolie entered. On his shoulder was balanced a bamboo pole with a fully laden basket on each end. He handed me a letter. It was from some American missionaries living quite a distance from where we were. These missionaries had spent a few hours with us the day before to see something of my husband's methods of work. They had stayed for dinner and had left us with practically an empty larder. They must have sensed this, as the two laden baskets indicated. These contained all sorts of good things -- jam, pickles, bread, cake, butter, and other things. But the most timely and precious evidence of God's love and care came, when tearing paper off a bottle of grape juice, I noticed a portion of the torn paper lying on the floor on which, in large print, were the words,

"IS THIS THE RIGHT ROAD HOME?"

Picking up the bit of paper, I read the following lines:

Is THIS the right road home, O Lord?

The clouds are dark and still,

The stony path is sharp and hard,

Each step brings some fresh hill!

I thought the way would brighter grow

And that the sun with warmth would glow

And joyous songs from free hearts flow.

Is THIS the right road home?

Yes, child! this very path I trod,

The clouds were dark for Me,

The stony path was hard to tread,

Not sight but faith can see

That at the end the sun shines bright,

Forever where there is no night,

And glad hearts rest from earth's fierce fight,

It IS the right road home!

"On carefully examining the scrap of paper, I found it to be a portion of an English paper, "The Life of Faith," printed four years before in 1914 at the time of the Great WAR. How strange! How wonderful! God surely, in this case, moved in a mysterious way. An English newspaper four years old, coming through American missionaries and reaching me, as it did, just when I needed the message desperately!"

"Again and again I read those lines, which seemed to speak to me a message from the Lord direct to my soul. At last I cried out, "O Lord, if this I am now going through is the right road home, then I will NOT murmur!" 

" The effects of what I had gone through . . . remained with me for years. But He brought me through! And so will do for you, dear fellow-climber." ~Rosalind Goforth in "Climbing"

I know that each of you reading this has probably had needs met through reading what Rosalind shared with us from so many years ago. I have!! He brought me through each moment this past week and the concerns that were on my heart then and now are concerns that the Lord is interested in. He will meet your physical and emotional needs. He will meet needs that your family has: your finances, homeschooling needs, needs of your children, and of course those of your dear husband. God is most of all concerned about your deepest needs of your heart...those things that weigh us down as mothers. Cry out to God like Rosalind did. She beautifully shows her vulnerability and through this shows how the Lord will bring you through!!


"The Christian on his knees sees more than the philosopher on tiptoe." ~D.L. Moody~


"How often do we attempt work for God to the limit of our incompetency rather than to the limit of God's omnipotency." ~Hudson Taylor~


"Prayer is the soul's sincere desire, Uttered or unexpressed."


"Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh: is there anything too hard for me" (Jeremiah 32:27)


~Judith~