The Straight and Narrow Path, part 1

I can remember as a child wanting to be 'good' and can remember reading something somewhere about "the straight and narrow path" and remember it had something to do with not giving in to temptations. Over the years I often thought of what it means to be "good". I remember once seeing a picture of this path, it was straight, it was narrow and it was golden. I have come to the conclusion that this is definately the wrong image for it.

Have you ever seen those maze games where it has a 'start' point and you have to draw a line and find the way to the 'end' point? It has twists and turns and many dead ends. I think this is what it should look like.

My imagination often runs wild when I am trying to express a new idea. I imagined myself traveling this path. I kept searching for this golden, narrow and easy to follow path. I feel like I am in a maze though. I keep running into dead ends and thinking how unfair this is since I am trying to be "good" here.

I also find myself back at the start with a lady who looks sort of like one of those Sphinx creatures who you have to solve their riddle to pass. She smiles and says that I have solved one of life's lessons in understanding this much. I feel so inspired and rush to get through this since I am "a very good person" and this should be a piece of cake. I always end up back with the start lady though.

I know that when things keep happening they happen for a reason and it is a lesson you need to learn. So when I find myself once again at the beginning I tell her 'Look, I understand all this so can't I just get past all this and get to the end?" And she smiles that smile that is full of humor and mystery and tells me that if I am so smart why do I keep finding myself back at the beginning?

I tell myself 'Aha, here is the riddle I need to solve" but then get stuck...