The old roads.

 

Shep here.
I grew up in the country.  2 1/2 miles down Utility Road was a little chert drive that turned off to the right.  I lived at the end of that road.  I went barefoot after the whippoorwill first cried in the Spring.  I caught June bugs and tied a piece of thread to their back leg and let them fly around like a remote control airplane.  When we churned ice cream on Summer nights I would stick my finger in the hole at the bottom of the wooden churn and lick that cool salty water off my finger, then shoot off under the big elm tree and catch lightnin' bugs.  I really did that.  I hated hogweed, briars and bees.  We dug worms up by the barn and fished every chance we got.  We rode bicycles- all the time- everywhere.  Me and my brother would ride the 2 1/2 miles down to Bagley's store where we really got Orange Nehi's and sat on the bench in front of the store to drink them so we didn't have to pay for the bottle, too.

Pretty soon I got big enough to ride to see my girlfriend.  She lived about twelve miles away.  Andrea once asked me why I would ride 12 miles to see her.  I said, "Only because she didn't live further."

Then I got old enough to drive, and I began driving down new roads.  Off to college.  Off to Law School.  Off to work.

And today that old chert drive seems a long way off.  I turned 43 today, so it has been a while.  And things have changed.  I live in a neighborhood...in a cul de sac...at the end of a paved road.

I have seen a lot, learned a lot and matured a lot since my barefoot summers in Rocky Face.  There were some things that my backwoods, country, old-fashioned parents just did not understand about today's modern times... like how to set the time on a VCR...but other than that, I actually think they had it figured out pretty close to right.

Here are some of their old fashioned ideas:

Tell the truth.
Never give up. Never.
Think the best of people.
Give to folks that need help.
Treat other people how you would like to be treated.
A man's word means something.
If you can't say it face to face, it ought not be said.
The Bible is true.
Some people think they are worth a lot because they have a lot.
Be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to get angry.
Sometimes you need to fight.
You can see God.
You can hear God.
You just have to get quiet and try.
If you lay down with dogs you wake up with fleas.
Hard work makes you feel better.

I just got back from a wedding.  This sweet couple got married in an old, old, one room church.  They stood facing each other as the ceiling fans hummed, and an old upright piano played that old familiar tune.  The doors were flung open for the breeze.  They looked at one another and promised their unfailing love.  I sure believe they meant it.  It certainly felt right.

I know its going to get tough for them.  It always does.  When the days get long, I pray that they will go back.  When the tempers flair I pray that they will return.  When the temptations fly, I pray that they will find their way back to the old roads...the roads that say, "I don't care how bad it hurts, I made a vow...and by God that means something."  I want them to abandon the new paths of convenience and self-centeredness, of conditional promises and wavering convictions.

After all, what is wrong with the old roads?  I wonder if you have left them behind.  I wonder if you have bought into any lies that he world is selling.  If you have, go back.  Go back.

Go back.  Go back to the ancient paths.
Lash your heart to the ancient mast.

I know we all want to be modern.  We want to be progressive, but as C.S. Lewis pointed out, "once we have learned that we are on the wrong path, isn't the most progressive man the one who turns back soonest?"