Then we are back to that unsettling thought that God is more than a back-stage puppeteer. We have to come to terms with the idea that God waits, that God waits for us. Any of us could get the same offer. Some unwillingly undertake great destines, enact them in sullen pride, uncomprehending. More often those moments when roads of light and storm open from darkness in a man or woman, are turned away from in dread, in a wave of weakness, in despair and we relief.
Ordinary lives continue.
God does not smite them. But the gates close, the pathway vanishes. Maybe you have felt yourself smack in the middle of Robert Frost's famous poem, where two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and sorry you could not travel both, you took the one less traveled by. Or, if you are like most of the people most of the time, maybe you checked the mileage and you checked the gas gauge and you took a look at the road conditions, and you played it safe and smart and took the one more traveled by thank you very much. Not many of us are destined to make decisions that will directly impact the rise and fall of nations.