I was in an unfamiliar city today. Yesterday a neighbor told me that the Ice Age Trail was only a mile away. 

 I listened carefully to this neighbor’s direction, as I wanted to walk this trail. This morning I started out with eagerness. All was well until I came to the end of my described path and couldn’t see that it led anywhere but to a residential street.

 Turning unto this street I was encouraged to see a big rummage sale a few houses down. I trusted that the people running this sale would know where the Ice Age Trail was as it had to be between their two feet.

 The answer was not as easily attained as I had hoped. The local people had a general awareness of this trail but no one knew exactly how to find it. One young lady graciously tried to locate it on her smart phone. With no one knowing for sure, the consensus was that I walk about a mile in the direction I was going and ask other people along the way.

 After about a half mile I asked a man who was pounding in a sign for a garage sale. He didn’t know for sure either but he thought if I turned left I would come to a park that would yield access to the trail

 Not feeling confident of any of my guidance, I decided to retrace my steps and go back to house in which I was staying. By now I had met my exercise goal and I would find the trail another day.

 Coming up to the turn that would take me to the origin of my walk I noticed a man running hard through what, from my vantage point, looked like a cornfield. Excited by this sight I thought, “That has to be the trail”.

 I walked on about a half a block and found this sign:

 Reflecting on this discovery, I wondered how the people hosting the rummage sale could have lived a block from this sign and not known the Ice Age Trail was there.

 I wonder if I would have seen it if I hadn’t first noticed the man running.

 What do we need to do in order to let people know a path exists and then where to find it?  Do we rely too much on printed words?  Do we need to see someone who attracts our attention?

 Lord, help me today to run in such a way that those who see me ask questions and ultimately discover a path for which a sign in the ground is simply not enough.

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