Ministry Musing

By Donna Kelly

A few years ago, my husband and I were driving home to Texas from visiting family here in Illinois for Christmas. The road was smooth, we had made our stops for restroom, snacks and a drink. We had even made it through the traffic maze know as St Louis. It looked like clear sailing ahead. We went around a curve in the road and there it was; a huge traffic jam. The lines of cars ahead of us looked never ending! Far up ahead we could see the blinking of what looked like a thousand emergency vehicle lights. We were stuck! There was a roadblock ahead and nowhere to go to get around it!

We started grumbling about the hold up and how we weren’t going to be able to get to the motel we had booked a room in that night. After we had sat there for a while without moving, we went from frustrated to resigned to being stuck behind this roadblock. As we began to creep along, we could see that it was at least a mile to where the actual roadblock was. After about an hour (seemed like 10) we had moved forward enough to get to an off ramp. We had no idea where we were or how to get through St Louis and back on to the interstate beyond the roadblock. We had to make a decision, stay stuck where we were or venture out into the unknown and find another way. We couldn’t just give up trying to get home, walk away, leave the car on the highway and go find a place to live in St Louis.

I haven’t thought of this incident for years, but a few weeks ago my daughter and I were talking about her work. She works for a mental health system. They had a guest speaker who talked about personal and mental roadblocks. When we hit a roadblock in our lives, we tend to get stuck. We try the same technique or answer over and over and find it didn’t work before and still doesn’t. Often, we simply give up! “I’ll never be able to finish school!” I’ll never lose the weight I want!” “I’ll never figure out how to make this relationship work!” “I’ll never get past this hurt, or grief, or struggle!” So, we quit trying and let the roadblock beat us.

But what if we didn’t give up and take a deep breath and keep on trying? Or venture out into the unknown and find a new highway to travel? We don’t give up at a traffic roadblock and we don’t just give up in life either. We can stay calm and persevere or find a new path.

By the way, we decided to venture off the highway and find another road around the roadblock caused by the accident. Luckily Russ had received a new thing called a GPS for Christmas and it worked like magic. We were through St Louis and past the roadblock in a matter of a few minutes.

When I find myself staring at a roadblock in life, I now try to remember this incident and look for the way around it.

Donna

email Donna at: donna@sotpmail.com