Brick

Yellow Brick Road.........
Originally uploaded by eaandian.

Do y'all remember watching The Wizard of Oz as kids? Then, the whole movie was magical and fun...I absolutely loved it! After not watching it for a good 10 years, I watched it again. This time, I started to understand why some parents thought it scary in places. Where some things had failed to register to me as a kid, as an adult these same things were crystal clear in their implications. I had the same reaction to the ol' school Willy Wonka movie...

One thing that I saw differently was the dirty yellow brick road...while it started out golden and gleaming, there were many a moments in the movie where the road appeared to be only a faded, dull brick. There were even times that the road became narrow and obscure. At the finale, of course, we remember that their long-awaited, far-traveled-for wizard turned out to be no more a wizard than the tinman.

While a child and even as a young adult, the road's been fairly clear for me. Most times, when a door opened, I would walk through it...a good opportunity translated in my brain as a right opportunity. But now I'm discovering this is not always the case.

Lately, many moments have reminded me I'm simply a blue-checkered dress girl with ruby slippers. I continue to walk this road...while a youngster, it seemed so much more gleaming and perfect and easy. It seemed clear. Now, there's still a road, but there are moments when I have to bend down and sweep away the dirt from the path to make sure I'm still on the right colored brick. An open door does not necessarily equate the right open door.

I'm learning to find that center of who I am...the core of what I'm supposed to do in life. After finding that, it's to this core, to that center, that I bounce all of these open doors. Sometimes these open doors bounce back and look like the antithesis of me. And then sometimes they bounce back as a mirror image of me...of Him in me.

I used to make decisions by praying for a set time, reading His Word, asking wise counsel, analyzing the situation and listening to the Spirit inside me. And now I still do these things. But His Spirit has shown me that it is not simply the obvious 'fix' that is the right thing. The normal and easy way usually ends up making it's way deeper and deeper into the wicked witch's forest until thought and sight of the yellow brick has been lost forever.

In the end of the movie Dorothy realized that the thing she had been searching for was really with her all the while. While she was searching such a great deal for a quick ticket home, she learned things that grew her into a woman. She could have gone home at any second, but the things that she learned on the arduous travel made her home-going a sweeter and richer experience. She now had the perspective to truly appreciate the smallest of things and relationships that she had at home.

Today I'm simply praying I have the eyes to see His yellow bricks for me....