The Lesson in the Maze

Recently a group from my church paid a visit to a local farm. As a city girl, it was a treat for me to take a hayride, pick fresh pumpkins, and enjoy nature for a few hours on a brisk, fall day. As part of the fun, I decided to take a walk through the corn maze—which God used as a great teaching moment.

I made sure everyone who wanted to explore the maze went in first. Some of the teens, parents with small children, and even my husband and 2-year old nephew went in ahead of me. Then I took a deep breath and said a quick prayer as I entered the maze myself, with its neat walls of corn stalks that stood about 7 feet tall. In the beginning, I loddy-doddied my way through, figuring I’d simply let my instincts and a little help from the Holy Spirit guide me through.

The Lord gave me a few minutes of “me time.” I wandered alone, with the dirt path under my feet, checking out the dried ears of corn that were still on some of the stalks. I had a map of the maze in my hand—but as I said earlier, I’m a city girl, so it wasn’t of any worth to me. After about 15 minutes, I realized it was probably time to get serious about getting out. So, I started to make a concentrated effort to get to the end.

Just then, I ran into my husband. He had our nephew by one hand and the maze map in the other. “Are you really trying to read the map?” I asked. “Of course—you have to follow the instructions,” he replied. “Yeah right,” I said, taking a right while he took a left. And my right led me straight into a dead end. I suddenly recalled that Proverbs 12:15 says, “The way of fools seems right to them, but the wise listen to advice.” So, I decided to go with my husband!

We made it to the center of the maze, where there was a platform. We walked up the stairs of the platform which provided great view that overlooked the farm. I paused to take in the colors of fall—brown, gold, green, orange, and red—which were just gorgeous. My husband told me it was time to move on and he continued to lead us by the map.

I was starting to wonder if this map thing was really working out. We hadn’t really hit any dead ends while following it—but we still weren’t out of the maze, either. My nephew, who had grown tired of walking, was now in my husband’s arms, along with the map. As I was beginning to doubt my husband’s map-reading skills, we were joined by a young lady from another group. “You look like you know what you’re doing. I’m following you!” she said. Well, there was no way some one else was going to have more faith in my husband than me! “Yep, he’s a smart guy and he’s going to lead us out of here,” I told her.

Soon after, we were out of the maze! The young lady was the first of her group to make it out, and she triumphantly sat at the exit to wait for the others. I told my husband I was really proud of him for getting us out with the map. He replied, “It’s easy when you follow the instructions.”

That’s when the Lord laid on my heart the full scope of his words. When I followed my own way without the map, my “right” took me to the wrong place. Isn’t that a lot like life? When we try to follow our own mind, we end up in a dead end. In my home, we try each day to “follow the instructions” that God gave us for daily living—in other words, our Bible. And my husband is the one we depend on most to lead the charge and keep us on the right track—just as he had done in the maze. Even more so, his conviction and our example were an encouragement for someone else to follow the right path!

Lord, You have mapped out the best way to navigate through this life—I’m going to trust and follow Your way!