Back Roads Matter

A late fall afternoon on Elm Hill Road.

Sometimes out of necessity, but more often, it seems, by choice, Jesus preferred the back roads to the highways to get from Point A to Point B. Not that there was much structural difference back in the day—all roads were pretty much well-worn foot paths. But as with today's Interstate, some paths got you to your destination faster and more directly. WJDD —What Jesus Didn't Do — most of the time.

This is no throw-away fact. Because one of the more fascinating things about following Jesus in this life is to see over and over again in the Gospels that He was seldom in an Interstate state of mind. And what is that? In the words of journalist Charles Kuralt, "Thanks to the Interstate highway system, it is now possible to travel across the country from coast to coast without seeing anything." Jesus preferred to slow down and take the back roads and see. And if there was a delay in plans, there was a good reason for it. If there was a detour that had to be made, it was seldom a waste of time...

"Then Jesus made a circuit of all the towns and villages. He taught in their meeting places, reported kingdom news, and healed their diseased bodies, healed their bruised and hurt lives." —Matthew 9:35, Message

...It takes a lifetime of walking with the One who walked everywhere to begin to embrace all of that. “Git ‘er done” is how we roll in this culture, and that Interstate mindset does not die easily.

But if you live anywhere near a back road that branches off of your local main highway and that meanders along river banks, up and down and around hillsides and fields, and is occasionally interrupted by little clusters of homes, it never fails: you begin to unwind, get perspective, and…breathe. You also begin to notice what you didn’t notice on the main road:

You notice.

On the back roads, you become less aware of me-myself-and-I and more aware of your surroundings, the changing scenery, the woman walking her dog, the old man shuffling out to his mailbox, the kids jumping with delight off the school bus at the end of the day. You tend to see things you don't see when you're on Interstate mode.

To slow down and see—that just might be the subtle, outrageously beautiful plot behind God’s idea of creating back roads and why Jesus often followed them. To take His followers back to the main thing of seeing and serving and ministering to others and away from the deeply engrained “it’s me and my life and I’m in an Interstate hurry to get wherever that is” mindset.

That outrageously beautiful plot was driven home one bitterly cold winter morning when the usual sounds of guys in pick up trucks going to work on the back road through the woods were greatly amplified. You notice things like that. And things like this: At the same time those trucks on the back road made their presence known, two seemingly random and passionate readings from two generations collided, and rather than chaos, the result was fusion and focus and seeing once more:

• “The person who loves his life and pampers himself will miss this life! But the one who detaches his life from this world and abandons himself to Me will find true life and enjoy it forever!”—John 12:25, Passion Translation

• “Because I was created by God and for His glory, I desire to make knowing and enjoying God the passionate pursuit of my life.”—From the Passion Conference “268 Declaration”

It was seeing that "to everything, there is a season" includes a time and place for the highways and Interstates of life. Because sometimes, we really do have to “Git ‘er done.” But maybe, just maybe, following in the Master’s footsteps looks more like intentionally slowing down on the back roads, and seeing people and things that really matter, and remembering that in the upside down Kingdom, “it’s all about me” is really supposed to be just the opposite...

"We're not where we're going

And we're not lost where we are

Taking the long way Home

Just taking the long way Home

There's beauty on the backroads

Even when this journey's hard

Taking the long way Home"

(From "The Long Way Home," Neon Feather with David Dunn)

(Updated from a previous entry.)