The road never just ends, you just have to get out to enjoy the view

I was in a cabin, on a much needed weekend sabbatical and decided to venture out to see the park and all it had to offer. As I meandered around the park I spotted 30 deer, 10 wild turkeys, owls, tons of birds and not one person. But then I came to this road that led nowhere – literally- the road just ends, the lines go to the very end of road, but there are not even any warning signs, it looks as if it should just keep going.

So, I’m staring at this ‘abruptly ending road’ in amazement and actually laughing out loud at such a crazy thing, then I notice a little sign to the left, a picture of a hiker and an arrow with the words ‘to view resort’. This picture of the oddly ending road with this sign, made me think of a real life scenario.

Here I am driving along in my comfortable car, cruising along doing life, when all of a sudden the road just ends. Something happens in life, either big or little; like divorce, death, consequence of a sin, late bill, back-talking child, but something that suddenly stops us in our tracks of comfortable living. At that moment in life, we have a choice to make 1) we just keep sitting in the comfortable car, too afraid of the unknown and think the rest of the road will just magically appear or 2) get out- work a little, take the walk and ‘view the resort’.

Now, the resort could be a multitude of things to any one of us; new experiences, better decisions, forgiveness, life, freedom, closer walk with Christ, but the moral is that we can either continue sitting in the same spot sulking and waiting for something to happen - focusing on the end of road, trying to figure out the why and how can I get through this without getting out of my comfortable car OR we can get out of our comfy zone, put on our hiking shoes and start walking.

I was so intrigued by the sight of this road I had seen, that as I checked out of the cabin the next day, I had to drive back to the abruptly ending road. As I sat there staring at it, I decided that I wanted to view the resort, so I got out and walked the walk. When you first start on the path, you can’t see where it ends, how long it is, if it’s brushy or clear, so many unknowns as you walk. I just walked one step at a time and it was refreshing, beautiful and worth it. My purpose of the walk was more for the analogy and reason behind it than to actually say that I viewed the resort, it was metaphorical to me and I’m glad I got out of my comfort zone to do this. I’m hoping God reminds me of this resort walk the next time I’m faced with an issue in life that just stops me in my tracks.

So, the next time, life leads you to an abruptly ending road, get out and take the hike through the unknown trail. The view from there is much better than just sitting at the end of the road waiting for something to happen.