the corn maze.

It's not like a corn maze, he said. It's not like there's only one right way in and one right way out and one right way to get from one side to the other. It's not like there's a right choice and a wrong choice and if you make the wrong one, you end up at a dead end and hopeless. It's not like that at all, he said.

Okay. I know I am in the palm of His hand, which is big enough so that I won't fall off of it and small enough so that I won't get lost in it. I know that I will never be stuck at a dead end and hopeless. I know the choices I make will always turn out right because He will make them so. I know He is faithful, and that His love never fails.

But I guess I always thought there was a right way and a wrong way, like a corn maze, but if I ever went the wrong way, He would plow through the corn walls so I would never be stuck or hopeless. Because, that's what I thought happened. I thought I'd made the wrong choices. And I thought He had to plow through some corn walls because of it. I thought I'd missed opportunities and He had to create new ones for me. I thought, even though He was faithful, there was still a path I should have taken. If only I had made the right choices instead of the wrong ones.

But it's not about what I do, he said. It's about what I become. It's not about where I am, it's who I am. It's about my growth in Christlikeness. And growth doesn't happen if He tells me what to choose. Growth happens when He says, "You choose." Because it's not about the choice, it's about the choosing.

It's not like a corn maze, he said.