Life comes with rumble strips....

Our home, situated 30 feet from Route 322, affords our family up close and personal sound and visuals from the highway travelers. The variety of vehicles that use that road bring any number of competing noises. You can hear the roar of 18 wheelers as they haul their goods. Occasionally, one can hear the rattling of a motorcycle streaking by. Many different sounds emerge from cars and pick-ups of various types. The disturbing report from truckers who find it necessary to use the Jacobs Brake (Jake brake) on this stretch of highway is common.

One distinct sound that emanates from the busy thoroughfare is a buzzing of tires that have drifted off the edge of the road. I'm not sure who ever thought of putting those rumbles strips at the edge of the road, but he/she/they were/are brilliant!! You know what it sounds like when your driving and get distracted by a phone, the radio, or someone in your vehicle and the car begins to drift. At some point the tires contact those repetitive grooves cut into the pavement and voila, you have that annoying buzzing sound!! Immediately, your focus comes backing to the driving task and you make the necessary corrections on the steering wheel. I especially appreciate the centerline grooves cut into secondary roads that have no road markings. On foggy commutes, I can better estimate where my vehicle is in relation to the middle of the highway. (Embedded reflectors are welcomed too!)

Wouldn't it be helpful to have those rumble strips built into our lives. You know, when we move toward a destructive thought process (BUZZZZZZZZ) or when we are about to enter into a bad relationship (BUZZZZZZZ) or someone asks us to enter into illict behavior (BUZZZZZZZ).

With the advent of automobiles that now sense when the driver is drowsy or when the car drifts across highway markings, comes an attention grabbing alarm. I'm no Mercedes Benz but I do have internal controls to assist my driving (faith journey).

God has given us a failsafe warning system that can be helpful if we will listen intently and allow the system to guide our path. The Holy Spirit is our internal drift sensor. He guides, protects, comforts, convicts, informs and speaks on our behalf. Highways are metaphor for our lives and both require an enhanced navigational system to assist us in our weaknesses.

"What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus.

Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in

us (2 Timothy 1:13-14, NIV)

If highways were as wide as the hayfield I used while learning to drive then this idea of rumble stips would be moot. However, our faith journey is fraught with narrow passages and unmarked roads. We need the comfort that God's Spirit brings. Without him, our spiritual vehicle would be all over the place.

“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to

destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life,

and only a few find it. (Matthew 7:13-14, NIV)

As you travel today, be sensitive to the Holy Spirit's guiding and if you hear loud buzzing just know a course correction is in order. The narrow road we travel isn't easy, but it is doable! Da. Da. Da. Da. Da. Da. Da. Da. (Oops sorry, I forgot to turn off my Jake Brake!!)