Minimum Maintenance Roads

Have you ever driven down a minimum maintenance road?  Then you know how they are often exciting…  Just in case I have readers who have lived in a city their whole lives, I should explain a minimum maintenance road.  Everyone who drives knows about paved roads, the way is paved for you and usually smooth.  On a paved road, you aren’t likely to get stuck or pulled into the ditch.  Then there are gravel or rock roads.  They are well traveled, but not enough to merit the expense of any form of pavement, their surface is made up of gravel or rocks.  Usually the counties that take care of them are kind enough to warn you when they dump a load of fresh gravel or rock (that is a whole other story!).  Now minimum maintenance roads are usually marked with a sign.  It will say “minimum maintenance road” or the ever ominous “gravel ends”.  These are true dirt roads, road surfaced with dirt, just dirt.  Sometimes there may even be a little grass growing between the tire tracks… (these are the most fun).  These dirt roads are there just because there is someone in this world who needs to drive that way.  If no one drives on them, the grass and weeds will take them over, and there would be no road anymore.  You never know where a dirt road will take you.  You never know how long it will hold on to that rain!  What happens when a dirt road gets rain?  Well, the obvious, then you have a mud road rather than a dirt road.  Mud roads are downright treacherous!   Dirt roads will keep their rain and hide it in low spots, like the shortcut on a game board – you are always risking something to take that shortcut – there just might be a space that says – ‘mud hole, get stuck, loose three hours’.  Yet some dirt roads are smooth sailing!  They have the potential to be smoother than the best highway – you can feel the soft dirt beneath your tires like sand beneath your feet at the best beach!

My mom and I went on a trip once.  We were driving back from Kansas City and decided we would not take any pavement.  We would just travel north and east – this was LONG before the days of GPS.  We also took all the dirt roads we could find!  Gas was cheaper then too.  Wow, did we have fun!  There was one dirt road that just got smaller and smaller, soon we noticed grass was growing between the tire tracks (never a good sign), we rounded a corner and stopped.  We had to stop.   We stopped because all we could see out the windshield of the truck (NEVER TRY THIS IN A CAR) was corn.  Corn, corn, corn.  The road ended in a corn field.  Now what?  Well, the road was rather narrow, no place to turn around…  Mom got a lot of practice with her backwards driving that day!  We backed out, all the way out, until the road got wide enough to turn around. 

Okay, can you see where I am going with this?  What I want us to take from this is that there are times we all have to drive down minimum maintenance roads.  We, as true children of God, should always be on the ‘road less traveled’.  Romans 12:2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

Sometimes that road is difficult, sometimes it is full of holes, or mud, or weeds, or rocks, or bumpy spots, or even tree branches or cows blocking the way.  Sometimes we sail smooth and happy, other times we get stuck.  Through the entire journey, rest easy, because God is with us! God is with you down every step of that dirt road.  We MUST trust him and take those dirt roads of life, we may not know where it ends, but God DOES!  He has promised not to make it any rougher than we can handle.  Sometimes we may think we can’t handle it, that it is impassible.  But God is with us, we would not be experiencing that mud hole if God did not think we could endure it.  And God is always there to pull us out!   Psalm 40:1,2  I waited patiently for the Lord to help me, and he turned to me and heard my cry.  He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and the mire.  He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along.  Psalm 50:15  Then call on me when you are in trouble, and I will rescue you, and you will give me glory.  Not only that, but God also uses those mud holes and cows to teach us things, to make us stronger, to deepen our faith.  He can take anything bad and turn it to good.  We don’t know his plan, we must just trust it!  God is good!  Romans 5:3-5  We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance.  And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation.  And this hope will not lead to disappointment.  For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.

Don’t be afraid of the dirt roads in life.  God is with you.  Use the brain he gave you and don’t charge recklessly on without heeding his direction – but follow his direction.  Take the dirt road if you need to.  We miss many blessings by staying on the pavement and taking the ‘easy road’.  My oldest son’s middle name is Emmanuel.  He has that name because I never want him to forget, that whatever road he is on in life… that God is always with him.  God is always with us, he is there, and will pull us out of the ‘muck and the mire’ if we ask him, and allow him.  God is with us!