Getting Lost in the Race

Okay, I'll admit it.

I have difficulty with directions.

Mind you, as a female, I'm inherently better than a guy at directions. Mainly because I'm willing to ask for them, and when I receive them, I do try to follow them to the best of my ability. The level of ability is something else to be questioned entirely.

The other night I was driving Hannah, Autumn and myself back to campus after a nice little Sunday road trip. I had driven it before, and I had directions. Clarification: I had the "to" directions. I hadn't written out the "from" directions. But come on - all you have to do is reverse them, right? How hard can it possibly be?

Rather difficult, in fact.

I ended up having to turn around several times, getting more upset with myself each time. Finally, I gave up. I turned around one more time to get back to the intersections of a couple of routes. I pulled over and gave my dad a call. We both took out maps, and he pointed out to me how to get back. I double checked on my map to make sure I knew where to go, and discovered it was incredibly easy. I had thought I was off in some unknown part of the state and I thought it was going to take a complicated route to get back. Nope! Just hope on 63 North up to 19, then take 19 South all the way back. Wow. Even though I might have stumbled across that eventually, he found it so quickly. Probably because he had done construction work for so long, and knows half the atlas like the back of his hand. I knew that if I gave him a call, he'd find a solution and tell it to me.

When I got back to campus I gave my parents a call to let them know how I was doing. Then I was talking to my mom about some of the struggles I've been facing. My mind keeps coming under attack, the clouds of anger and self-doubt keep taking over, and I feel like so often I come to the end of the day bruised and bloodied. And my mom, in all her great wisdom said:

"Well maybe it's time you pull over and ask your Dad for some directions."

You know, when mothers really want to bring it, they bring it. I wouldn't say it was exactly an "ouch" statement, but all the same, it was so simplistic and obvious, it was rather humbling.

I often wonder if we get caught up in the complexity of the Christian life, something that while it is complex, doesn't need to be. Too often we set up for ourselves quasi-idols, those great "heroes of faith" that we are supposed to follow. Abraham, Moses, Joseph, the Disciples, Paul and of course, Jesus himself. We think that our life needs to be like theirs, that we need to follow in their steps and run the race just as they did. And we do. But they didn't start out are heroes. They started out as ordinary people - many of them outcasts from society. When God called, they answered. They took each step as it came. Just look at the disciples - they couldn't even figure out Jesus' death until AFTER He rose from the grave. But listen to what it says in Hebrews:

"These were all commended for their faith, yet non of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect." (Hebrews 11:39-40)

Wow. That's pretty powerful. The author has just gone through a rather extensive list of the "heroes of faith" (a side note: I highly doubt ANY of them would like to be categorized as such, but that's just my inference), then points out that they aren't made perfect without us. I don't fully understand what that means, and I won't pretend to say this is the "correct" way to interpret this scripture, but in a way, it makes me feel pretty cool. We're not at a place below these people in the Body. They can't make it up themselves - only together in Christ are we "made perfect".

What does this mean?

We can't give up. We're surrounded by that "great cloud of witnesses". They're not there to judge us, but to encourage us along the way. God did not give us their stories to say "Hah! Look at how amazing the people were that I used in the past. Betcha you can't live up to that!". NO! He says to us "Look at the people I used. All they had was faith. You also have faith. You can make it through this race".

The suffering is temporary. The blood will eventually clot. There will come a day when we will be free from all of this. It's so hard to see it now. There are times when all I can see are the times when I've failed Him. But He's always there, ready to help me get back on the right track. But though He is ever-ready, I have to be willing to turn to Him. So often we are continuously hurt and continuously fall simply because we won't turn back to Him.


"We all want progress, but if you're on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive." - C.S. Lewis


"I take hope in Jesus' scars....Scars never go completely away, but neither do they hurt any longer" - Philip Yancey

"But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished - he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies whose who have faith in Jesus" Romans 3:21-26