First Baptist Church of Herndon

Along the road

Linda Soller | Mar 02, 2015

The other day, while driving to work, I started thinking about what happens along the road as we head to our destination. I was on route to the office, all around me there was so much to see, people going in different directions, and yet, I was driving down the road more or less on auto pilot. Tell me, have you ever driven along a very familiar road and realized suddenly that you don’t actually remember much about the last mile you passed over? It’s a bit scary and a bit amazing at the same time. We go through the motions so many times we hardly notice the details anymore. Twice daily I use a road that many people hate to drive on. It’s hilly and it meanders. Those of us who take the road regularly tend to go pretty fast. We have really memorized the road. We take our cues from what we know and observe along the way. The familiarity gives us confidence. Maybe too much confidence.

When Jesus decided to go with His disciples to Jerusalem for the last time, He knew what was going to happen. His disciples only knew they were headed to the city for Passover. Along the road much happened to illustrate not only how important Jesus had become to the people in the region, but why He had come in the first place.  Even though Jesus knew what He would face, He never stopped noticing people. I don’t mean the simple recognition of people, I mean He still saw the needs of people. Jesus remained aware of life around Him as He journeyed. I know He wasn’t in a car cruising along a hilly meandering road, but He did have companions and distractions. It wouldn’t be hard to understand as He walked toward Jerusalem, if He had gotten lost in His thoughts and ignored others around Him. Put yourself in His place for a minute. See, what I mean?

Two days before my drive to work there had been snow. The day after the snow the temperature soared and there was a lot of melting. Before I’d left home the weatherman warned of the temperature dropping again and the refreezing of our snow melt. Headed along my hilly meandering road I pretty much forgot about the weatherman’s words until I came to a particular low spot. As I approached the road was shining in the morning sun. Suddenly I snapped out of my auto pilot mode and made a quick decision to slow down before I got to the shiny spot in the road. Turns out it was wet and not icy, but it certainly got my attention.

In life we often hear the warnings, and still strike out along the road to wherever we want to go. Every now and then we get a wake-up call, like a shiny piece of pavement on a cold morning, it reminds us to take stock of the warnings, to use caution, to be mindful of our surroundings. Maybe the warning just reminds us where we are along the road.  Our faith provides the warnings and lessons we need to live a productive, caring, giving life. We know we should truly see the people around us and not take them for granted. We know even in the familiar we will come across challenges we didn’t expect. We also know our faith gives us the tools to deal with those challenges. We know all this and yet we strike out along the road, in our own little world, until we come across an icy spot which gets our attention. As we approach Easter let’s follow along the road with Jesus and His disciples, and try to see the road through His eyes. 

 Have a great week! :o)  Linda