Back Roads

Every time I talk to my friend Brian Kelly from Columbia, Missouri about his hometown he always brings up his love for cruising the back roads. I didn't understand why anyone would voluntarily choose to drive on roads whose speed limits were less than than the fast lane of I-35 and trekking down a thoroughfare where gas stations and fast food were out of sight until I finally gave it a try this evening. I was on my way back from Waco, dropping off a load of furniture at my future residence and the eighteen wheelers on I-35 kept cutting me off and when I made it to the fast lane their inconsistent speeds inhibited me from setting my cruise control.

I reached up to my GPS and requested an alternate route. As I exited it sent me to highway 308 which runs between waco and shoots you out just beyond Hillsborough. The sun was setting, lighting the sky with majestic shades of pink and the contrast between the blacktop road, endless fields of corn and the cattle grazing in the pastures was breathtaking. The towns I passed through were small specks on the map where only a few hundred people could call home. John Wayne would have felt more comfortable on the main streets of these whistle-stops than the iPhone bearing Dallasites a stones throw away. At one point we were moving over a bridge and out of the corner of my eye I saw something and realized that it was an Armadillo (if you're not from Texas, reading this and you assume that this is a commonality, it's not...). I turned my truck around, but by the time I had my headlights pointed to the spot where I sighted the Texas tank it was gone.

A few miles later I reconnected with I-35 and once again I stepped on the gas and the pavement began sliding under my truck with a greater pace. The fields scattered with cattle turned into a four lane highway speckled with sedans and trucks. The colors went from greens and browns to concrete gray. The back roads were so much better. How did I go 19 years without realizing this.? How many people go there whole life stuck on I-35 behind an eighteen wheeler wishing there was a better way, because there definitely is a better way, one that makes you feel more alive, more connected to the creator. But why is it so hard to exit, to pull off the highway and head onto a road less traveled? Because I-35 is comfortably miserable. There are signs for the Dallas exit and fast food signs light the sky. On the back roads you could miss your turn and wind up lost. You could run out of gas and not be able to find a gas station. You might get behind a farmer driving his John Deere into town. You might just find that the road less traveled it BETTER.

Let's quit being comfortably miserable and take the exit. Try something new, fail, love someone who might not love you back, get into a conversation about a God who is unexplainable and become overwhelmed. We were not created to merely exist, we were created in Christ to live and to live abundantly (John 10:10). Take the exit.