Desire Paths: The Shortcut Trend and What It Means for Walking with Jesus

There are some sermons that you hear and it’s like you’ve already heard it before. You know where they’re headed as soon as it starts.

But a while back, I listened to a sermon about a topic that I wasn’t immediately familiar with. The priest was talking about something called “desire paths.”

If you've never heard the term, then you've definitely seen them! They're those worn-down trails, the ones that cut diagonally across a park or cut through a corner where the sidewalk curves.

You see them on college campuses, apartment complexes, parks, in the snow. Pretty much anywhere that somebody decided the paved path took too long, and so they made their own. Then another person followed. And another. And eventually, there's this bare strip of dirt where grass used to be.

The official path is right there. It was designed to be there. But people looked at it and thought, “hmm, I see a faster way.”

This concept has stayed with me ever since, because if I'm being honest, I've made a lot of desire paths with my faith.

Surprise, surprise, Scripture has a lot to say about what happens when we carve our own paths instead of trusting the one that was already laid out for us.

This verse from Proverbs seems like it was written specifically about desire paths. On a surface level, yeah, of course, don't do obviously bad stuff. Got it.

But when I start thinking about it through the lens of desire paths, I see it differently. Because desire paths don't look wrong. That's the point!

They look efficient, it’s a shortcut.

When I cut across the grass, I’m not thinking that I'm making a terrible decision right now. I’m thinking “why would I walk all the way around when I can see exactly where I'm going?”

I often depend on seeing exactly where I’m going to guide my decisions. Or at least what I thought I could see. A financial decision I rushed into because the math seemed obvious. A commitment I walked away from because staying seemed like the long way around.

Yet every single time, I was looking at a desire path and calling it wisdom.

The thing about Proverbs 14:12 is the word appears. It appears to be right. The path looks perfectly fine from where you're standing, I mean you can even see other footprints on it. But appearance and destination are two very different things.

Here's what I notice about desire paths, they might even be wider than the original trail. They get wider every time someone new walks them. The more popular the shortcut, the more worn down and obvious it becomes.

And after enough foot traffic, the desire path starts to look more official than the actual path!

I think that's how it works for me too. The wide road’s not wide because it's scary or reckless, it’s wide because it's popular. Everyone's on it! There are voices and opinions and influencers all heading in the same direction, and the sheer volume of traffic says it’s normal.

How many times have I followed that wide path? I follow it when I prioritize what’s comfortable over what I’m being called to do or when I let the definition of success from the masses become my definition of success.

That narrow path doesn't have a lot of footprints on it. And for someone like me who likes validation, that's hard to chew on.

I love this verse because God doesn't hide the path. He says stand still, look, ask…and I'll show you. The ancient paths are the good way and they lead to rest.

So it's not even that I don't know where the right path is. Most of the time, I do know. I've prayed about it. And yet I look at the desire path and think… yeah, but this way is so much faster.

I think standing at the crossroads is God calling me to pause, to stop walking for a second, and look around.

And He’s inviting me to ask (not assume, not Google, not poll social media), but to ask Him where the good way is.

Again, when I’m walking, I’m always looking (so using my eyes) at what’s in front of me (so what’s ahead). But in this verse, God’s voice is coming from behind.

That means not my sight, not my direction. I can close my eyes and trust what He’s saying because He’s right there…behind me.

I can hear Him even when I start to drift. Even when my feet are already heading towards that oh so desirable shortcut. Even when I've taken a few steps off the path and I'm not sure if I've gone too far.

"This is the way. Walk in it."

And I KNOW I've heard Him (but I’m admitting here and now that I don’t always obey).

For me, I think desire paths happen when I'm walking without the lamp. Not a physical lamp, I mean God’s lamp.

What does this look like? It’s when I’m not in His Word, or when I've been coasting on yesterday's prayer or last Sunday's sermon. I trust my own eyes more than God's guidance.

His Word lights the path, the path He laid out for me. And when I'm walking with that light, the desire paths don't look as appealing. I can see them for what they are… worn-down dirt that leads somewhere I don't really want to go.

Next time you see one of those worn-down trails, I hope this post comes to mind. The shortcut might look easier, but the path God laid out for us was designed with purpose. Every curve, every long stretch, it's all there for a reason. Stay on it, even when your feet want to wander.