Rough Road Ahead

I spent the day on the road with my friend Collin and saw some interesting road signs. This inspired me to return to the theme of road signs for this week. As you can see, I have picked on that relates to the troubles and hard times that we all experience in life. What if we had a sign on our journey, that said, "WATCH OUT! SOMETHING BAD IS ABOUT TO HIT YOU!!?" What would we do? Would we turn around? Would we keep going?

As Christians living in the midst of a "broken" or "fallen" world, we must realize that hard times are approaching, constantly. For non-believers and believers alike, both good and bad things befall us. Rain and sun fall on all people, regardless of who you are or what you believe. Sometimes I think that Christians should expect more to deal with things, rather than treat their life like they have some bizarre immunity to the whole thing. Culturally, we all think that we should personally be immune from "rough roads" for a variety of reasons. We each think that we should be guaranteed an easy life and all that jazz. I think that this very assumption can sometimes intensify the grade of "rough road" itself. 

The other way of interpreting this sign would be to look at the cross-roads of Christianity and Culture as being a "rough road." First of all, we see that Christianity and Culture may not always interact politely or well by any standards. They are in fact made to contradict in their innate design and purpose. The second word though I think is even more worth looking at. The image of it not being an intersection as in one little hiccup in time, but rather a road that we journey together. Switching and mingling Christianity in non-evasive and non-synchronistic ways. Letting them interact over time as each person grows and shapes them. To visit the intersection once and have a rough time is not enough. One must travel the road a while to be able to live in the context of both Christianity and culture. 

Rough roads are easy to identify with on many accounts and on many levels within each person. Some rough roads are meant to be rough to get you to turn around, others are simply less traveled and really beneficial at the end. I pray that the rough roads that you, reader, must travel will be beneficial in the end and if not, that you will remember that God is the definition of good and the author of a much bigger story than what we can currently see.