On a long journey you are bound to face a few roadblocks: a possible flat tire and several detours. These bumps in the road are an inevitable part of all journeys and it is important to keep in mind that the obstacles are not necessarily part of a conspiracy against your progress. Acknowledging their inevitability helps us prepare our minds in advance for their occurrence, keeps us from feeling uniquely persecuted by their placement in our lives, and leaves open the possibility that God might just be at work.
Although I never experienced a flat tire during my year-long walking journey across the United States, my daily plans were dotted with detours and countless changes in course. I faced one such roadblock when my journey took me across southern Minnesota. Most of the southwest section of the state is farmland and broken up into grids of soybeans and corn. If you’re on foot in this farmland your route is easily determined by flow of the fields. Although the roads are not quite as true as a compass, intersections give you the easy choice of nearly north, somewhat south, working toward the west and easily east. As I was heading south and east I found I needed no map during this stretch of road, just a commitment to go straight or stay to the right.
On one particularly long day I approached an intersection that failed to offer a southbound option. The choice to stay straight was an easy decision until I noticed that there were two very large black objects in the middle of the road up ahead. It didn’t take long for me to discern that the large black objects were two well fed country dogs who owned the road I wanted to travel. I know the story about Daniel and the lion’s den and God closing the mouths of the predators, however being out numbered and having learned to be leery of dogs who have claimed their turf, I took out my map to see how far a left turn would take me off course.
As soon as I opened my map I heard a voice in my head that said, “You can walk forward but you have to pray harder.” I stared at the dogs. They were big and they looked like they would extract a toll from any traveler. “You can walk forward but you have to pray harder.” I looked to the left and considered the detour and looked straight ahead and contemplated my road block. I had learned to hate heading north when my goal was the south and so I made a decision to keep to my course. “You can walk forward but you have to pray harder.”
I wasn’t sure what praying harder meant, so I went with a short prayer that I could pray without ceasing. “Jesus, your protection. Jesus, your protection. Jesus, your protection.” While it wasn’t profound it matched the pace of my feet and seemed to calm the fear in my head. As I approached the big black dogs, they stood to their feet, showed their teeth and began to growl. There was nowhere to run and I didn’t have the energy to retreat and so I continued to pray harder and walk forward. “Jesus, your protection. Jesus, your protection.” The beasts continued to growl but they did not advance toward me and emboldened I continued to move ahead. “Jesus, your protection. Jesus, your protection.”
The distance between us closed and my whole body tensed and prepared for the pounce. When I came within a few feet of the beasts, however, they turned around and walked down the road a bit, sat down, and continued to growl. “Jesus, your protection. Jesus, your protection.” And the sequence continued. I would pray, they would back up, I would walk forward and they would growl. I would pray, they would back up, I would walk forward and they would growl. Eventually we came to their driveway and tails between their legs they ducked down their road and back to their dwelling and I continued the journey forward.
On this journey that God has you walking, there are roads that no one has walked for a very long time and there are powerful deterrents at work to keep you from walking in the direction God has been calling. But I believe God has you walking a particular stretch of road for a reason and that Jesus is more powerful than any plan of attack against you. As you continue on the journey today I invite you to investigate the roadblocks that have kept you from moving forward and then I challenge you to begin to pray harder and begin to boldly walk forward.
