Potholes

Driving on the roads this winter is like being inside an arcade game.
Dodge a pothole here.
Point!
Dodge a pothole there.
Score!

I feel as if I’m driving on an obstacle course.
I must be ready at a moment’s notice to swerve.
It seems as if the potholes are multiplying each day.
There is always a new one next to the one you already knew about.

Potholes are deceiving.
Especially if the pothole has water inside, there is no way of knowing its depth.
People have lost hubcaps or blown out their tires as they hit a pothole.
Some have even broken their axle if they hit a pothole too hard.

Once a pothole forms, it continues to grow.
It often seems to take on a life of its own as broken chunks of pavement become detached.
Potholes can be temporarily patched.
Fluctuations in temperature make it difficult to permanently repair.

Spring brings the road crews out in full force.
Once the temperatures moderate a bit, the repair has more of a chance to hold.
Until then, we dodge.
Until then, we drive on full alert.

Many municipalities have hot lines to report potholes.
It is important to do that so the road crews will know their location.
Potholes teach us patience.
We need to wait for the repair to be done and live with the inconveniences until then.

That is not always easy to do.

Many roads have the surface of a washboard.
There is bumpy ice in the middle with two strips on either side.
You tend to drive in the two strips that other drivers have cleared before you.
Swerving even a bit causes you to feel as if you are driving over rumble strips.

Driving on a particularly difficult road made me think.
This is not so terribly different from our life’s journey.
We go along just fine and then we hit a pothole.
We never saw it coming.

Two hundred and fifty council members rose up against Moses leadership.
They thought that more people should be recognized as priests.
However, God had chosen Moses as leader and his brother, Aaron as high priest.
In a dramatic test, God demonstrated to them who the leader really was.

With them were 250 Israelite men, well-known community leaders who had been appointed members of the council. They came as a group to oppose Moses and Aaron and said to them, “You have gone too far! The whole community is holy; every one of them, and the Lord is with them. Why then do you set yourselves up above the Lord’s assembly?” When Moses heard this, he fell facedown. Then he said to Korah and all his followers, “In the morning the Lord will show who belongs to Him and who is holy, and He will have that person come near Him. The man He chooses, He will cause to come near Him. You, Korah, and all your followers are to do this: Take censers and tomorrow put fire and incense in them before the Lord. The man the Lord chooses will be the one who is holy. You Levites have gone too far!” (Numbers 16:2-7)

The Levites were already set apart to do the work at the Lord’s tabernacle.
They were to stand before the community and minister to them.
This was not enough for the Levites.
They wanted the priesthood, too.

God set apart Moses’ brother, Aaron, to be high priest.
The elaborate ordination ceremony lasted eight days.
It culminated in a dramatic display of God’s approval.
Fire came out and consumed the burnt offering that was sacrificed.

As Moses summoned the grumblers, they refused to come out of their tents.
Moses told Korah that he and his followers were to appear before the Lord.
Each man was to take his censer and put incense in it and present it before the Lord.
The Glory of the Lord appeared to all the assembly.

The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Separate yourselves from this assembly, so I can put an end to them at once.” But Moses and Aaron fell facedown and cried out, “O God…will You be angry with the entire assembly when only one man sins?” (Numbers 16:20-22)

Moses warned everyone to move back from the tents of these men.
No one was to touch anything belong to them or else they, too, would be swept away.

Then Moses said, “This is how you will know that the Lord has sent me to do all these things and that it was not my idea. If these men die a natural death and experience only what usually happens to men, then the Lord has not sent me. But if the Lord brings about something totally new, and the earth opens its mouth and swallows them, with everything that belongs to them, and they go down alive into the grave, then you will know that these men have treated the Lord with contempt. As soon as he finished saying all this, the ground under them split apart and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them…(Numbers 16:28-32)

That was probably the largest pothole ever reported.
A pothole that became a sinkhole that did indeed come with warning.

Sin is like a pothole.
It seems innocuous at first; but grows insidious very quickly.
It will swallow you up after a while.
We have been warned.

We think that we can temporarily repair the damage that sin causes.
However, the pothole of sin fills up with debris.
Soon, the road will give way underneath us and we will be swallowed up.
We have been warned.

God sent His Son, Jesus, to show us the Way.
We can try to dodge the obstacles of sin all our life, but it will catch up with us.
Once we repent and come to Jesus for our salvation, He shows us the narrow road.
The narrow road that gets us to our Destination.

Potholes.
No thanks!
I would much rather trust Jesus to do the maneuvering.