Taking the dirt road

Image found at: dirt road - Bing images

When we think about life, one thing that comes to mind is the ways in which the paths we take lead us through different scenarios and gradually help us grow and become the person we are today and who we will be tomorrow. We all cross paths with others, make relationships, have hard times and happy times, shed tears, struggle and thrive, and so on. Every choice we make helps shape us into who we are. In this way, this grand scheme of life really gets broken down into steps, one by one, along our journey.

While the journey itself can be broken down into small steps, big mile markers, and stretches of long miles in between, each step can be traced back to the beginning. When I say 'the beginning,' most of us think of when we were born. Yes, this is where our earthly trek begins. However, I want to focus on 'the beginning' as referring to when we started our journey with Christ. For some, it is when we were born, when we first were able to begin understanding anything about this life, we were taught about Jesus and His love. For others, it was later in life, sometimes at a low point or maybe it was right after a really high point for you. This beginning is what makes up the foundation of every step that comes after it. Regardless of when Jesus came into your life, when He did, it changed your perspective, right? This is why I changed where 'the beginning' was. Lots of us have winding paths of confusion or wandering before we start our life with God. But when this perspective shift happens, our journey has a different finish line, our paths become harder, our goals more important. It does not begin and end on earth, but instead we take each step with Jesus guiding it, knowing that He knew us before we were born and He will welcome us into His arms when our earthly life is complete, letting us sing His praises for eternity. We have different responsibilities while we are here, and when Jesus enters our lives, we take the rest of our steps knowing that we are not worthy of His love, knowing that we do not belong to this world and will be hated for it, knowing we will be bullied, targeted, teased, and more for our beliefs, knowing we are fighting our own sinful flesh every day. While all of this might be true, we also take the rest of our steps with His love, with His strength, with His confidence. Philippians 4:13 reads that " I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." We put on the armor of God to face and fight this sinful world and we will be successful with our faith and with His glory. We humble each step to know that we cannot do it without Him and focus on getting to Heaven when we can celebrate our Lord.

The perspective change is enormous. We see the world in different ways and by accepting God's love, we can display our gratitude onto the world. With all of this being said, we aren't Christians because we want the journey to be easy, but rather we are Christians because we are aware of how hard it might be on us here on earth, but have firm belief that the love of Jesus will carry us through and His welcome into eternal life is worth any burden here. When we ask Jesus to walk with us, we are asking to take the dirt road.

Ah yes, the dirt road. Why take the dirt road? Why make it harder on ourselves when life is hard enough? My favorite way to think about this is to think about all of the people who refuse to get their hands dirty. The person who does nothing in the group for the group project, the one at work who never owns up for their mistakes or pulls their weight, the person who can't say "I'm sorry," the boss who gives you all the hard work, 'just to take the credit, etc. The list goes on and on and on. How many of these people have we met, had to clean up after, had to work with for a common goal? It's frustrating, isn't it? Why should we have to pick up the slack when they know we are the ones left to do the work? Well, the short answer is that we shouldn't have to. For some reason we do, and most of it comes down to the fact that we care. While the people who do this (probably not to just us, but to everyone they meet) are taking the paved road, straight and flat and short, we are left to care about what they leave behind. We care about how their lack of caring might put more work on someone else, might damage someone else's reputation, might ruin our grade, might cost us, or someone else, the job. And while we could behave the same way, leave behind a similar mess, and pass along all the work to someone else, we don't. And we don't because Jesus didn't pass the buck, didn't step aside from His responsibilities, didn't abandon the work that needed to be done. He didn't because He cared about us. He didn't because He wanted to save us from the spiritual wreck that we are in and the wave of sin that we leave in our footsteps. Sin corrupted us and put us on a path straight and flat, right down to Hell. Jesus picked up our slack because He cares about the end of our journey and each step along the way. He did not say that in saving us that the path He would take to rescue us or that we would take for loving Him would be a 'walk in the park,' so to say, but it is most certainly worth it. This is why we pick up the pieces of others. We care about the outcome. We take the dirt road because we can represent the way Jesus stepped up for us by doing the same in our own situations. We can, with God's grace and through His will, save our jobs, our group project grade, protect the work from being dumped onto someone else, etc. We don't take the easy road because Jesus didn't take the easy road, and our walk with Him as believers is not an easy trek.

Picking up someone else's slack, cleaning up after someone else, doing the work because it needs to be done; these are just examples of what it means to take the dirt road. I began with these examples because they test us and teach us about what we are willing to do to step up when others so blatantly step aside, and almost invite us to do the same thing. Is the grade really worth it? Will you really get fired for not doing the job? These are difficult questions we ask ourselves and it is the devil tempting us to take the easy route, to step off of the dirt road and abandon caring about the outcome. When we don't take the easy road, it is another step we take in our journey to heaven that can be traced back to our foundation of Christ. These are often large moments of growth for us, but truthfully, the concept of taking the dirt road is applied in so many different areas of life. Whether or not it was a group project, we would put in our best effort, we would be the best employee we could be, we would continue to self-reflect in relationships with others so we can put our best foot forward every time. The steps we take in between the mile markers are just as important. We, as Christians, care about every step we take because we represent Jesus in every step. My point is that taking the dirt road means doing the right thing. Doing the right thing is not easy and it costs time and effort, every single time. Doing the right thing is never the easy choice. Often it is uncool, boring, weird, made fun of, and more. Regardless of this, it is still the right thing to do and by putting in the hard work and getting our hands dirty, we express how we care about what we do, what we say, and who we are. Once again, we can relate this to how Jesus did the right thing, every single time. He did not take the easy way out, but rather, regardless of what people said about Him or thought of Him, He took the time and put in the effort to do the right thing. He took the dirt road all the way to the cross.

Now that I have explained exactly what taking the dirt road means, I want to consider an aspect of this concept that we can easily lose sight of throughout all of the stress, frustration, and self-control that we have when we are getting our hands dirty. It can be easy to get broken down on this path of ours, but think about it literally for a moment. When you are outside, walking on a trail, you can look at different species of birds, butterflies, flora and fauna. You can pay attention to the sounds of nature and hear the trees wave in the wind. You can feel the sunshine and learn about the patterns of the shadows caused by it. You can note the terrain and the colors, textures, and depth of it around you. When in nature, you can experience so many things, right? Now we can apply this to our metaphor of taking the dirt road in life. We, as Christians, experience so many different things in life because each step in our journey goes back to our foundation of God. Our perspective and our choosing to walk with Christ lets us learn about this world and see God in every piece of it. We can appreciate the highs more because we have endured the lows. We can see our faith in action and see it bear fruit. We can see the value in the rain and the sunshine and recognize the balance in this life. All of this is because our paths wind, curve, go up and down, go through storms and sunny days, and we can see the hand of God working in every step. Because we have this perspective, it allows us to stay on the path He created for us and to trust in His process. Those who refuse to take the dirt road, those who think it is easier without God, those who are lost wandering without Him, all miss out on the ways in which God's love changes our perspective and lets us see, hear, experience, and learn about God and about this world throughout our journey. It makes the difficult times on our dirt paths less daunting, makes the joyful moments more precious, and it helps the roots of our foundation grow. It is easy to get overwhelmed when we consider all the work and pressure and disapproval that comes with taking the dirt road, but when we can rely on our perspective to focus on our end goal and being able to celebrate eternal life with our Lord, it makes this earthly journey one we can find joy in, despite all of the hardships.

While taking the dirt road in this life can be a bit challenging, there is an immense amount of peace knowing that when we choose this route, the Lord is guiding us and walking with us every step of the way. I find that when we get our hands dirty, it teaches us about the important things in life, like working hard, being honest, relying on our faith, clinging to who we are and what we stand for. Caring about our goals, the outcome of a situation, and how we represent God is the farthest thing from a weakness. Caring will cost us time and energy and can sometimes put us in frustrating situations, but the experiences we gain and the approval from the Lord is worth every step in our journey as Christians. We have the opportunity to be grateful for the perspective that God has given us and can focus on how taking the dirt road will lead us right into His awaiting arms.