The Highway of Life

In 1992 I attended an international Soil Science Conference held in Kyoto, Japan, and took Nancy (my wife) with me. We arrived in Tokyo a week early for a pre-meeting “soil science” tour. The next morning, we were picked up by a bus and headed north toward Osaka. We visited and discussed one or two soil sites each day, and the rest of the time was spent sightseeing. Most of the site-to-site travel was via major highway, but then we would turn off onto side roads, and sometimes they were quite narrow for a bus. The most memorable travel experience was making a 90 degree turn from one narrow road to another. This was in a small village, and a house roof extended right to the corner of the roads. A hostess was with us, and one of her jobs was to guide the driver from the bus rear, communicating via a police whistle code. She jumped out into the rain and guided his twice necessary back-ups in getting around the corner. We could have easily reached out the window and touched the house roof, but the corner was rounded with neither a touch of the roof nor scratch on the bus. Upon reaching Osaka, we were invited to an evening banquet and entertainment. The next morning, we boarded a Bullet Train for Kyoto. 

Isn’t that an image of our life? Many hours of our life-excursion time are spent traveling on “wide, easily navigated” highways, but there are constant needs to get off the highway. Marriage usually requires travel off the main highway. College will be a side trip along the way, and it may result in switching to a different, unexpected main highway. Jobs almost always require spending time on narrow roads, and can sometimes require clearing and building a new road upon which to travel. The list goes on, and many times we take “bullet trains” from one thing to another. We may or may not have planned out our side trips, but we constantly need guides to help along the way, particularly when we come to a dead end and need to turn around. 

Who are your guides? Parents should be your major guide for the first decade or two, but their guide-role should gradually decrease as they guide us into adulthood. Who have you chosen as your adulthood guide(s)? Peers? Politicians? Bosses? Those ahead of you on a ladder of success? Those you admire? There are many options, some good, some OK, and some bad. You may choose to follow different guides during different phases of your life. But who have you chosen for your supervising guide? Have you chosen God? This decision and obeying instructions may take you through some difficult paths, but will always bring you through these paths to a successful expedition conclusion.