Curves in the Road

When I lived in the Panhandle of Texas, I could stand at my back door and see the night lights of Amarillo, 29 miles away.  The way the crows flies and the way the roads ran were pretty much identical - straight ahead.  You could always look up ahead for traffic jams, road blocks and weather changes.

Here in Arkansas, you can only look up ahead to the next curve in the road, which is about as far as you can throw an engine block.  In this state roadkill is the leading cause of death (not among humans).  I've know a fair number of folk who have gotten a deer on the way to the deer camp, rifle still in the case, rounds safely tucked in the box.  Death by car seems to be the exit of choice of deer, armadillos, squirrels, turtles and most other woodland critter due to their propensity to cross the road in the curves.  It is reported that one blonde asked, "Why don't they move 'Deer Xing' signs to safer parts of the road?"  OK, moving on.

My point in all of this is that a consistent reality of the terminal patients I work with is: "Life didn't turn out the way I thought."  It never does.  Looking down the road, we plan for a future and as far as we can see, things seem to be working one way or another.  The trouble is that just beyond where we can see, there is another curve in the road.

This is not only a reality taught by experience, it is a truth taught by Scripture: "Now listen, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.'  Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow" (Js 4:13-14).  In the words of the old Doris Day song, "Que sera sera," 'what will be will be, the future's not ours to see...'"

That's the reality of life: We are not in charge of circumstances and we cannot determine what they will be.  The truth of the matter is, "Many are the plans in a person's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails" Pr 19:21.

So, what is the answer to the curves in the road?  Get your pencil out or Ipad ready - "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight (Pr 3:5-6).  Jus' Say'n.