You’re kiddin’ me right?  The only way that I can cross this road is to make a U Turn?  Seriously?

In the middle of nowhere, rural south Mississippi, with very little traffic, there has been a major change.  Where is the stop sign? What’s happening here?  I mean, is there a legitimate reason for doing this?

To cross this highway involved stopping at the stop sign, looking both ways, crossing to the median, looking both ways, then driving on past.  You would leave the 4-lane behind and continue on your drive.  Not now buddy!  You can’t drive across anymore.  They (who is they?) have put a barrier up where the road intersection used to be.  NOW, you must turn right and merge into traffic.  Just a little ways down the 4-lane they give you a U-Turn lane.  To get to where you’re going, you take the U-Turn, then merge into traffic, then get in the right turn lane.  Then you’re back on track.

You got this?  Does it make sense?  Before it was this……… Stop at the stop sign.  Look both ways for any traffic on the 4-lane. (Never was hardly any.)  Then proceed with caution on your journey.  Now, now it’s like………. slow down at intersection, turn right, merge into U-Turn lane, go forward, get into right turn lane, turn right, go forward, now move ahead. (Now whip it!)

It’s all done without stopping.  It just doesn’t make any sense to me.  Was the intersection redone because of a safety issue?  Do the log trucks in this area create a problem with the (used to be there) intersection?  Has the Highway commission and public transportation seen a better way of doing things? I don’t know!  It’s confusing to me.  I don’t understand.  All I know now is that to get to where I’m going, I’ve got to turn right,make a U-Turn, turn right again and then I’ll be……….. uh….. then….. well I’ll be!!

I see a spiritual lesson here as plain as day, as plain as the new asphalt on this new intersection.  When we choose to become Christians, what directions do we take?  First, we come to God. (in a car we would turn to the RIGHT!)  Then we ask for forgiveness and change our ways. (We make a U-Turn).  Next, we turn right again (We follow God’s Will and Direction for our lives) and then……. we get to where we’re goin’.

I can make no acknowledgement that I understand this process. (either  the actual road intersection or the spiritual “intersection”)  I feel inferior sometimes when I can’t explain this process to others. (either one).  But what causes me to live my spiritual life as a Christian is the same reasoning that is used to cross this highway.  What is this reasoning?  Believe.   By believing, I choose to take a new and different path to get to where I’m goin’.  Whether I choose a new path to cross the highway, or whether I choose to follow Christ to get me where I’m goin’, it’s based on what I believe.  Not what I understand.

Isaiah 55:8-9New International Version (NIV)⁸ “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,    neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord. ⁹ “As the heavens are higher than the earth,    so are my ways higher than your ways    and my thoughts than your thoughts.

See Ya!  Dan Ainsworth wilderness preacher part time highway inspector, full time believing in a Holy Spirit filled journey