Jerry and I love to roam back roads, looking for herons and other wildlife, enjoying God's creation. Sometimes, though, we'd get to the end of a little gravel road, at a creek or the end of a county. Even though there'd been no sign to warn us, we'd run right into a dead end. When DeLorme began publishing their series of backroads maps for each state, we delightedly snapped up Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, even Texas, when we vacationed there. Technology moved on and now we enjoy Microsoft's Streets and Trips with GPS on our laptop. We haven't run into any dead ends in years.
Not so, however, in life. So many times, we find ourselves moving right along, no sign to warn us, and we suddenly find ourselves in a spot that looks like the end of the road. Maybe you know the feeling. You've done everything you can for the teenager who insists on violating curfew to hang with friends who look like they're going nowhere. We feel trapped in a job and think we shouldn't feel that way. We ought to just be grateful to have work. Perhaps we and our spouse sleep in separate bedrooms, not just in order to sleep, but because the spark has died.
When Jerry and I encountered dead ends in the country, we backed up, turned around and tried a different road. We knew what the end of the road looked like. In life, sometimes, it's not so easy to tell. Is this situation really a dead end? Is there anything else I can do? And, most importantly, what does God have to say?
And, are there really any dead ends if Jesus is involved? Are we seeking hard after him for his solutions? Maybe there's a little path through that underbrush in front of us that we haven't seen yet. Maybe what looks like an end will, by grace, turn out to be a new beginning.
Sweet Jesus. Oh, to see our lives as you see them. Give us your eyes, your truth, your pathways.