Got Klingons?

Okay, I know this is supposed to be about the journey on the narrow path, not the long and winding worm-hole... I haven't forgotten.

I was lying in bed awake at some ridiculous time the other night (sometimes I lie there wondering how many others are also, at that moment, trying to get back to sleep, almost willing it to happen, but just lying there waiting for the magic hour and a half to go by - but I digress). I was thinking about my new blog and trying to decide whom I would talk about first, as having been important in some way on my Journey thus far. Par for the course for wee-hour- musings, my mind wandered and I found myself remembering an old Star Trek episode with Worf going through some crazy ritual in the holodeck - something frightfully important to him in his 'right of passage' or something. He had to pass through a short path between two rows of fierce fellow (albeit virtual) Klingons who would do him the supreme honour of prodding him with painsticks. Sounds like fun eh?!! Propelled by the pain, honour and his desire to get to the end of the path without crying like a baby, Worf triumphantly reaches the end, and collapses in a heap of agony and bliss! Makes you glad your're not a Klingon - or are you?

Well, I know it's a stretch, but this is my blog, and heck, I like analogies, so here goes....

I was musing (I like that word better than "thinking", don't you? :-) about the Klingons in my life, and the 'painsticks' they have held and prodded me with unmercifully. Some of them had done a really fine job too, and there had been times in my life when I too had collapsed, figuratively, in a heap of exhaustion, agony and aparent defeat (okay, here the analogy breaks down, but it's been fun so far). Worf's bliss angle just wasn't part of the scenario in these cases, but something else was; something Worf missed, mostly because he isn't real and not created by a loving, all-powerful, all-knowing God Who was intent on using all things to work for my good. Poor Worf!!

God allowed alot of 'Klingon Warriors' to poke me with their sticks. Sometimes I wouldn't have gone the right way if I hadn't been prodded, and sometimes I look back and think it was the only way this thick-headed gal could have learned some of the lessons I needed to stay on the path later on. Often the pain inflicted by the Klingon stick was in the form of pain I had given to someone else - there's nothing like a little painful prod to make one see the truth about themselves - and sometimes you have to take some of your own medicine before you get healed of that disease.

It hasn't been a case of miles and miles of 'Klingons' to get me to the narrow path, but I do see the places that God allowed me to suffer, feel the pain, and collapse in agony so I would cry out to Him. He wants us on the Narrow Way, and uses many ways to get and keep us there. There have been many gracious gardens along the way too, and strong and gentle warriors, friends and fellow travellers to ease the journey, and next time I'll pick one of them to talk about.

Remember, "we're Pilgrims on a Journey of the Narrow Road, and those who've gone before us line the way"... Stay with me, travel with me and we'll learn together, and maybe encourage a few fellow travellers while we go.