Taking the road most traveled

One of the things I realize, in my quest to finish well, is that the road ahead for most of us is not smooth, straight or well paved. Life doesn't work that way. It's up and down, twists and turns, bumps at times and occasionally smooth. This is life on a fallen planet. It's never predictable, rarely smooth and often feels like a roller coaster ride. If you understand that this is normal life then it doesn't bother you so much when the next dip in the road happens.

This morning I was reading in Hebrews 12 and came to these words (my own version to follow), "God is constantly shaking the things that will not last so that we will put our faith in the things that will last. As we let go of the shakable things we will have free hands to hold onto the eternal things."

The road most traveled by the human race has some of that shaking going on. God is shaking things up to get our attention. "This stuff won't last, let go of it and trust me," as we hit another turn, another dip, a rough spot that we didn't anticipate. The road most traveled isn't intended to make your life hard, it's intended to change your dependencies....to change what you trust, who you trust and challenge you to grasp eternal things.

I think that's why old age is such a blessing from God. He knows how strongly we hold onto the shakable things, so with age, all the things we held onto seem less important and our grasp loosens...we slowly realize there must be something better to hold onto....there must be something that can't be shaken. To be honest, the ups and downs, turns and twists, rough spots and hard days are all blessings from God who is using each day to draw us away from the temporary to the eternal...to the unshakable things.

James described this same thing in a little different way when he wrote,

James 1:^2-4Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don't try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.