At The Pioneers Crossing – A Word by Nate Johnston

(I had a dream a week and a half ago that I had been slowly piecing together. It’s been a great encouragement to me and I hope it’s the same for you.)

In a dream I stood at a crossing with the red lights flashing and waiting for the train to pass. As I stood I could see that on the other side of the tracks my path multiplied into many paths and so I began trying to look and see where each path led.

It seemed that the path to the far left was pretty straight and I could see something in the distance in that direction. Then the path in the middle was pretty much the same – a few more bends but ultimately seemed pretty well trodden and going somewhere. Then I felt it, the knowing, the pull, or whatever you’d like like to call that moment where God changes plans and you have to deal with any previous expectations and adjust your sights on a new horizon. I knew that on the other side I was called to take the unfamiliar path… yet again. To be honest my heart sank. I’ve been on that road far too many times. I know the loneliness of it and the constant misunderstanding. I know there are far more bears to fight there and arrows to deflect. “Can I handle this again?” I thought. Then I look to my right and left and I see others like me waiting. “They are probably going to get the easy road. That would be typical. Then I began to analyze the situation further and ask the Lord; “Is it wrong to long for some reprieve? Is it wrong to desire the road of least resistance for a while? How come others get to enjoy the comfortable road? How come it’s not expected of them?” My heart was starting to feel anger and bitterness bubble up inside like a kettle beginning to boil.“Peace!” I hear a voice say and I instantly come to my senses. It’s the train-master about to let us cross and show us where we are meant to go.

Out of nowhere the train screams on past us and shocks me how fast it was going. The wind from the trains motion pushes us all back and whirls around us as it seems to go on and on and on. The train-master preparing to let us cross shortly simply announces “Leave everything behind!” “Everything?” I ask in reply. “Yes, you can’t afford to be distracted on the other side or you’ll end up lost. So leave it behind”. My heart starts processing at a hundred miles an hour again but this time I’m self-reflecting. “What am I carrying that I need to leave behind?” I ask myself. Then I begin to hear the judgments and labels I had been carrying from other people. I see the faces of those who have hurt me, the dark and painful moments I didn’t understand, and the hope deferred wrapped around me like a counterfeit mantle. I had seconds left until the train passed and I knew I needed to make peace with behind me, but it felt like a mountain, a roadblock, and a big bag of weight I didn’t know how to get through in time. Then I see it. I see Him. Through the tinted glass of the train I see on the other-side a man staring INTO me as if He knew the wrestle I was in. I stared back awkwardly and kept looking away, looked back, then away, then eventually locked eyes with Him. I knew who He was and He wanted me to know it was ok. He wanted me to know I could forgive them, the accusers, the season, and say goodbye to the path behind me. So in those split seconds I did exactly that.

Whewww what a weight off my shoulders! The train and now passed and we all crossed over and I stopped at the beginning of this new and unknown path but somehow I didn’t feel what I felt before. I didn’t feel like I had been dealt a bad hand. It felt fresh. I felt fresh. I was now ready to move on and embrace the new whatever that looked like. I didn’t need to look behind anymore. I didn’t need to prove myself or anyone wrong and i didn’t need to justify my steps. Something was different. Then to my surprise I heard a loud noise of people laughing and talking loudly behind me and I turned to see hundreds of others all joining me in the same path! “Who are you?” I asked. “We have been following you for years and we finally caught up!” They said.

This is for the pioneers who right now are at the end of the year about to cross over and are feeling the pull of a new unknown or detour. You have been wrestling a holy discontent and pull to move into a different lane than most yet again in 2022. Maybe you are trying to reconcile your last season and last unknown trek and the flood of emotions and memories of the trials are screaming at you. Maybe you are just trying to move out of exhaustion and the thought of running alone is too painful for you to bare.

Know this;

– You are in a OFFLOAD moment. A moment where God us taking care of business and freeing you from every burden you have been carrying.

– Something feels different about this new unknown. Get ready to meet the other Wildpack.

– Get ready to see the fruit of your last pioneering season.

– Get ready to move in something new and it’s time to shed the old and embrace something fresh.

Like the song “Come away” by Jesus Culture God is saying to you