The Road Not Paved
Country music singer Rodney Atkins’ song, “Take a Back Road,” contains the catchy phrase “gravel in my travel.” This reminded me of something my wife Jean and I often say when we are on a trip: “It’s not a vacation until we drive on an unpaved road.”
One example that comes immediately to mind is a day in October 2007. Jean and I had rented a 4WD vehicle – a Jeep. And not just any Jeep, mind you, but one that was fire engine red. We enjoyed a picnic lunch in Utah’s Dead Horse Point State Park – one of the most scenic places in which we’ve ever eaten a sandwich. Then we drove a dozen-or-so miles into the Island in the Sky section of Canyonlands National Park. In the foreboding-sounding Red Sea Flat area, we turned left onto a dirt road, Shafer Trail. (Finally, we were on vacation!) What we didn’t realize was that after a short, easy, level stretch, this one-lane road began a heart-in-your-throat drop of 1,500 feet in a mile-and-a-half. (Without guard rails.)
At the bottom of the cliff we’d descended, we stopped and got out of the vehicle. After we began to breathe again, we marveled at the colorful towering walls above us and the precipitous canyons around us. After a short while, we got back in the Jeep and drove several more, less treacherous miles to an up-close-and-personal view of a sharp bend in the mighty Colorado River.
This turned out to be one of the most memorable experiences we’ve ever had in our travels. And it started by taking a road not paved.
Paul was pretty much a Jew’s Jew. In his own words, he was “circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin,” (Philippians 3:5, NIV) “a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee” (Acts 23:6b, NIV). In terms of his personal journey, Paul wanted to be not just on a paved street, but on a multi-lane superhighway.
Even after Saul became a follower of Jesus and took the name of Paul, he mainly focused on going to synagogues:
As his custom was, Paul went into the synagogue,
and on three Sabbath days
he reasoned with them from the Scriptures
– Acts 17:2 (NIV)
Then came an event in Corinth that Luke recorded in Acts 18:6 (NIV):
But when the Jews opposed Paul and became abusive,
he shook out his clothes in protest and said to them,
“Your blood be on your own heads!
… From now on I will go to the Gentiles.”
At that point, Paul turned onto an unpaved road: taking the Good News of Jesus Christ to folks other than Jews.
In life, I sometimes find myself on roads that are “not paved.” They are often unfamiliar. They rarely have signs. They are almost never straight, level, or smooth. But God has promised that, regardless of the type or condition of the road I am on, He will be with me.
And so, as Paul might say, “Drive on.”