Potholes

Joel 2:25 

I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten,
the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent among you.

Isaiah 58:8 

Then shall your light break forth like the dawn,
and your healing shall spring up speedily;
your righteousness shall go before you;
the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. 

It is commonly heard that in Minnesota there are only two seasons: Winter and Road Construction. We spend all winter alternately pouring salt and sand on top of snow and ice covered roads and  then scraping the snow, ice, salt, and sand off the roads.  During a really nice winter we actually make it a few times to the mid-thirties and we have some nice thawing and freezing action going on.  All of this, the elements and the chemicals, make for some great road destruction.  Gotta love Minnesota, where potentially before the last snowfall of the year and even before the ground thaws, the road crews begin working to repair some pretty impressive potholes.

Life is full of potholes.  Emotional potholes, physical potholes, mental potholes. Sometimes we get stuck in them.  Other times we get a little help filling them in and smoothing them over. Some seasons are those in which the potholes of destruction fill our days and other seasons are for repairing the potholes.  Sometimes we don't even notice a pothole being formed and other days we don't notice them being filled in.

On our route to the YMCA there is a road that has been terrifically marred by potholes.  For years now I have straddled the potholes on this particular road in order to protect the wheels, alignment, and suspension of our "megabus" as the kids affectionately call our big van.  This week, however, I noticed that the road had been repaired, the potholes filled in, and we were cruising on a new and improved road. The road was smooth but I was driving on it like the potholes still existed. I actually had noticed the months of work that began this past fall and are not entirely finished yet.  I endured the road construction and re-routed traffic for a time.  It wasn't like I was oblivious to the fact that they were fixing the road all this time.  I had just gotten in the habit of driving like the potholes were there, even though they are now all gone and it is a smooth ride to the YMCA.

Sometimes life is like that.  Our kids have come from some pretty tough places. Their past has created some potholes in their lives, some deeper than others.  I wouldn't expect anything different given the circumstances. At first it seemed like there were some exceedingly large potholes, and definitely some that we would need to straddle the rest of our lives. Admittedly, those potholes looked pretty overwhelming at first.

And then something happened over time.  Some of the potholes were filled in and smoothed over.  Of course I noticed all the "road construction" going on.  I was, in fact, part of the road crew.  Endless hours of listening, advising, redirecting, crying, praying, weeping, teaching, counseling, comforting, redirecting (again), encouraging, disciplining, affirming, redirecting (again!).  And then suddenly the ride got easier and I had almost missed the fact that the potholes were largely diminished, almost entirely gone!  

The potholes in your life might be different from those in ours, but we've all got them.  It is the effect of sinful man living in a fallen world.  But we have a redeemer who is mighty to save, who is able to redeem our broken years and smooth over all of our difficult places for His glory.