the muddy road

A few months ago, half of one of my teeth broke off, and for the past many weeks it's been a literal and continual pain. When this team from Canada was in, the dentist graciously let me know that if I wanted to walk the mile to the church where they'd be working on Wednesday, he would temporarily fill it for me until we spent some time in the States again.  

He was only available at 1, so I ran home after chapel, popped Nora on my back and headed out the gate, already sweating in the humidity.  

Our road is a hard-core disaster.  

I started by sticking to the canal to stay out of the way of semis and motorcycles, splashing mud all over everyone. 

But, I kept slipping in the mud and was struggling to jump over all the gaps and finally I switched over to the nasty road.  It took me a long time to get there, picking and jumping and waiting for passing trucks, and I was covered in mud and sweat by the time I got us there. 

But, the Iraqi dentist had come all the way from Canada, and as I carefully leaned my metal chair back to rest my head on the back of a plastic chair with Nora standing by and all of our students and community members staring, I was grateful. The road was long and hard and muddy but ended in just what I needed and have been waiting months for, such grace.

There have been many many roads like this over the years, roads that looked so awful and tedious and long and hot and muddy and lonely that I would have rather just stayed off them altogether. In fact, sometimes the ENTIRE road feels slippery and sweaty and long and not worth it.

But Francis Chan reminded me this morning that IT. IS.  He reminded me  that muddy and weary and slippery is not the time to take time for me.  It's not the time to tag out, to argue with others about it, to focus on what I need or to lay off altogether.  Now is NOT the time to peter out, nor is not the time for ME. 

This quick little marathon of life we're each on? We are nearing the finish line, Christ is nearing the finish with us, and now is the time to pick up the pace.  If the finish line is in sight, if I only have just so many years, if my life is a drop in the bucket, and it is...then it's time to pursue His beautiful finish with all we've got, not time to pass out on the sidelines, to be focusing on worldly perks or to be worrying about me.  Now, as Chan said, is NOT the time to go shopping!

And I'm convicted this morning, because there have been some muddy roads I've been avoiding, even more than a muddy, dangerous road ending in a dentist :) 

There have been people in my life that I haven't tried to share the Gospel with in years, because they weren't interested and it was awkward and they've shown no signs of change, and so I've half-hearted some prayers over the years, but have left them alone. I don't want to muddy stuff up, it's a little to hot a topic...I'm worrying about their happiness more than their holiness, worried about their now a lot more than their later.

There have been some people in my life I've been praying out or even prying out of the mud...just wanting everything to work out perfectly for them, and at times even encouraging them that it will, a promise He never made. I've been pushing them towards easier paths, begging God for easier paths, instead of sticking in the mud with them on the narrow path, pointing them towards Jesus and the grace at the victorious end.

There are hard, muddy narrow-path things to say, and how often I don't say them because I want to keep the present peace instead of pushing for the final goal.  How consumed I become with my rights and comforts and desires, how easily I slow my pace and get distracted from the nearing finish line.  

Just as marathon runners pick up the pace for the second half, even sprinting near the end, it's time to put our head down on the weary road and pick up our pace.  Time to rekindle, time to renew, time to re-salt, time to return to that First Love we once had when the road was easy and the burden of following Jesus felt a joy!

Many enter through it, that broad gate. Many take it, that beautiful wide road.  I GET it. But man alive, it leads to destruction (Matthew 7), and we forget that part.  That muddy, hard road, it leads to just what we've been weary for, desperately needing, no more tears, no more sickness, no more pain, the arms of Jesus, sweet unmerited grace.

Keep on, brothers and sisters.  But even MORE than keeping on, pick up the pace with me. Let's return to our first love, be encouraged by His presence and pending return and His victorious finish promise.  

Yep, the road is as muddy and the race is as difficult He said it would be, but our brothers and sisters around the globe join us in struggle, through persecution and unimaginable difficulty, eyes on the goal. 

Hebrews 12 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. 2 We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith.[a] Because of the joy[b] awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne. 3 Think of all the hostility he endured from sinful people;[c] then you won’t become weary and give up...12 So take a new grip with your tired hands and strengthen your weak knees.13 Mark out a straight path for your feet so that those who are weak and lame will not fall but become strong.