Walking Dirt Roads

Amazement seized all of them, and they glorified God and were filled with awe, saying, “We have seen strange things today.” Luke 5:26

Have you booked your flight yet?  Virgin Galactic (www.virgingalactic.com) is taking reservations for future spaceflights. The flight will take off from Spaceport America in New Mexico and will last about 90 minutes. This amazing out-of-the-world experience will only cost you $450,000.

Unless they take frequent flyer miles, I may not get to experience this out-of-the-world adventure. Though I may not get to see the earth from outer space, I have experienced some amazing adventures on dirt roads.

My childhood home in rural Oklahoma was next to a dusty dirt road. Growing up in poverty, I only dreamed of adventures beyond the dirt road. Grateful for an amazing church and city library that allowed me to read about places and people around the world, placing myself in their stories and experiences. Unbelievably, that dirt road would someday lead to a dirt road in Africa.

Maybe God has a great sense of humor since Connie and I found ourselves in Bophuthatswana with a house facing a dirt road. Similar to the Oklahoma dirt road, you knew someone was coming long before they got to the house by simply seeing the cloud of dust.

Dirt roads have been a path of adventure for us. Dirt roads that have brought us to places and people that we would never have encountered otherwise. Places and people filled us with awe as we walked these roads.

We drove on dirt roads that led to small church buildings in the middle of nowhere, yet where you experienced the very presence of God.  We walked on dirt roads that led to medical clinics where the physical needs of people were met and their souls found encouragement in God’s love. Dirt roads that ended up at majestic mountain ranges, breathtaking canyons, thundering waterfalls and beautiful thatched hut villages.

Dirt road driving in America is now mostly confined to weekend warriors with their dirt bikes or 4-wheel drive pickups. We simply take for granted that our driving will be on paved highways. However, through most of history, dirt roads were the normal surface for transportation. These dirty, dangerous roads would connect one community with another.  Jesus’ main method of traveling was by foot on dirt roads. Roads that brought him within reach of people that needed hope, healing and a Savior. Dirt road walking leaves you ready for the unexpected.

Jesus used the dust from the roads in Luke 7 to confront Simon, a Pharisee and leader in the community, about his lack of forgiveness and humility. A nameless woman, broken and scared from her sins, finds her way to the house where Jesus will be eating. Uninvited by the host, she makes her way to Jesus, washes his feet with her tears and then anoints his feet with the bottle of perfume in her hand. Instead of grace, Simon offers condemnation to the woman. Instead of condemnation, Jesus gives forgiveness to the woman, “your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

Jesus used the dust from the road writing forgiveness and grace for a woman caught in adultery in John 8. A woman, mocked and humiliated by the religious leaders, after being caught in the act of adultery was thrown into the dirt at Jesus’ feet. A woman, condemned as an outcast by society, finds forgiveness and redemption in the dust at Jesus’ feet.  No longer would she have to listen to the voices of shame, now she would only hear Jesus’ voice of love and acceptance.

I bought a plaque in a North Georgia gift shop that says it well. “Of all the roads you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt.” I never dreamed where that dirt road in Oklahoma would lead. I have learned dirt road walking does lead to some amazing adventures. I hope you find yourself on some amazing dirt roads in the years to come.  As you journey the roads ahead of you, may this portion of prayer by Benedict of Norcia encourage you:

LORD, be with us to guide us,

within us to strengthen us,

without us to protect us,

above us to raise us,

beneath us to uphold us,

before us to lead us,

behind us to guard us,

ever about us,

this day and evermore;

this day and evermore.

Amen.

God is great,