Gravel Road Wisdom

…in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:6

I love living in the country.  It’s so peaceful and pretty and my front porch looking off into the fields is one of the best places to be.  There is, however a drawback to living in the country and that is the gravel road.  For some reason this year our road has been giving the county fits.  Some spots are just fine and then all the sudden you hit a patch that seems like a remote village mountain trail or a big section of beach sand.  The road commission has been working hard but it’s still a mess.  I get excited when I hear the grader coming by and the Chloride truck that sprays the compound that keeps down the dust is always a happy sight but then I head off down the road and realize the rough spots are back and I sigh.

One day last week I pulled out of the driveway and took off to the east and the first quarter mile was great and I thought, wow, this is great it’s all in order.  Just as soon as I had processed that thought, bam, there was a soft low spot followed by a set of holes that allowed a top speed of about 5mph to maneuver.  My shoulders slumped and I thought great, back to this again.  The same process repeated itself for the next mile and a half until I reached a paved road.  Once I turned onto the pavement there was such a sigh of relief, phew, that’s over I thought.  As I picked up speed and headed down the road I realized how much my life resembled that gravel road I live on.

I began to take a good look at the bumps and slowdowns in my own road to Christ and realized I have way more than the road I live on.  I might want to complain about them and blame them on someone else but the truth of the matter is they are mine to maneuver.  I can’t just stay parked in my driveway waiting on the county to come along and make the path perfect any more than I can sit still waiting for God to swoop in and take away every bump, low spot and pot hole in my life.  I gotta get out there and figure out how to find my way toward my destination.  The one really good thing about the rough spots in the road is that they cause you to slow down and think about your driving.  Sometimes I live at top speed without enough conscious thought about the journey.  If I try to blaze down the road too fast it’s easy to lose control, so it is with life too.  If I try to blaze through life all on my own without troubling the Father for guidance and support it’s easy to lose control and veer off where the path can be rougher. 

The big realization I had is that the whole road isn’t awful, just parts of it.  I realized all I was focusing on were the rough parts and not the smooth parts.  All my attention was strapped to the parts that were less than expected; I think I look at life like that too.  It made me remember that being a disciple is a journey filled with easy and hard but that neither is supposed to last forever.  When we’re really happy and life is going along smoothly, we expect it to continue just that way and then when things get rough and choppy (like they always will) we throw up our hands discouraged.  Neither is designed to last forever, our life is peaks and valleys.  If life were to continue constantly on an even plane without peaks and valleys, the line would always be in the middle…that would be a life of medium and nobody wants that.   God loves to meet us and rejoice with us when we hit the peaks and he’s right there with us with his love and mercy when we hit the low spots, who’d want to miss that!  It’s all about the journey, not just the current mile. If things in your life are a little out of perspective, take a drive down your nearest gravel road and let God speak to your heart.

A Seed To Plant:  Name some of the speed bumps along your journey and pray about the best way to maneuver them.​

Blessings on your day!