Short Stories

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The Freeway

We are all born into life, on the freeway to Heaven. The on ramp begins in our mother’s womb, where our ignition is turned on and our engine is revved up. As we start up the ramp our parents, parent, or family, gives us last minute advice. How to survive, how to change lanes and how to keep an eye on the guy in the lane next to us.
Many people are already on this freeway. So to ensure we get a place we confidently and masterfully fake our way on at top speed, pretending that we’ve been at this all our lives. For some of us it’s easy to enter the flow of traffic. This is usually due to a friendly and even more competent driver than we are, that allows us access. Sometimes though, we get up that full head of steam. We refuse to take our foot off the gas, and force our way on, almost always directly ahead of a Semi, with only inches to spare. Being an inexperienced driver we consider ourselves lucky, or even worse, that our driving skills enabled us to complete such a feat.
In our “ I can do it alone” mentality, we forgot to look at the destination of this freeway, the speed limit and rules to be followed while driving on it. We also didn’t notice the sign that said “This freeway was adopted by Jesus,” which means that as long as you follow the posted rules and speed limits, you WILL reach the destination. It seems pretty simple now, but when you first start out you just know that you are the one in control. You know that you can switch lanes just as fast and as many times as you’d like. We forget that the destination of this freeway is Heaven, so GOD is the owner and C.E.O., His Son Jesus is the guide and C.F.O. since he paid our debt, and our toll to be on this freeway.
These things are indeed factual and cannot be changed. We should just sit back and enjoy the ride, but we don’t. There’s that nagging feeling that we should be doing more. We could do better, I mean it’s our car and who knows it’s abilities better that us.
We know we are smart and can figure out a way to reach the destination faster, or more effiencently. That’s where the trouble starts. We try to help our Helper, we try to repossess what the Owner owns. We start to ignore the leadership of the guide and try it our own way. We start to believe that we have accomplished, completed, the complex problems of daily living. We think we are capable of doing any and everything we wish.

Now we’re on our own, driving at our own pace. We start speeding up and slowing down. When things get tough, we change lanes. We find ourselves swerving to avoid traffic, not realizing we are the cause of that traffic.
Eventually we begin to swerve into on coming cars headed in the other direction, if you know what I mean. The accidents start out as dings and clips, but soon start to become more involved and take longer to clear away from. The dings and clips become spin-outs. Sometimes you end up still going in the right direction. You begin to find yourself headed in the wrong direction more and more frequently. Once you get headed in the wrong direction, the flow of the traffic carries you along at its pace. The longer you travel the longer it is between off ramps to get back in the flow of traffic on the freeway to Heaven. The distance between off-ramps, become further and further apart and soon you begin to wonder if there is an off ramp.
Some people stop looking, and just start driving along with the traffic going in the wrong direction. They begin to ding and clip the other drivers on the freeway to Heaven causing them to loose control and spin out just like they did.
If you are blessed and do find an off ramp and are able to turn around and merge back onto the freeway going the right way, you will have to start out even further back from the original point. Once again you’ll feel the need to go faster and take the wheel, instead of just taking it easy and enjoying the ride. You will feel that everyone else has more than you and you want what they have.

You will forget that they gave up the wheel a long time ago and are allowing the guide to lead the way at His pace, and at His will. This is where it gets tough for us all. Once again, there’s that temptation to grab the wheel. To try to catch up and regain all that time and all those things that were lost to the past. We hear the little voice of the enemy say “Go ahead, it will be different this time. You can do it!” Don’t listen, instead think of how much closer you will get to God, and be comforted to know that the Guide will be giving you special attention to help you stay on the right road. Our Lord, in His love for us, has no limited off ramps like on the other freeway. He has allowed them all along the freeway. He hopes that you look over at the opposing traffic and say to yourself “Why would I even think about traveling over there.” He hopes that you notice that the cars over there are all rusty and dented and the people driving them don’t look happy. Though there are more lanes over there, and the flow of traffic seems to be moving faster, the drivers still look frustrated and lost. If you take a closer look some of them even look scared, bewildered, and afraid.
God gives us the choice. To join Him on His Freeway and allow his Son Jesus to be our personal Global Positioning Satellite and get to a wonderful place in eternity. Or we can take the next off ramp and go the other way.
I’m for letting Jesus be my guide and getting to Heaven safe and sound. God will be waiting for me along with all those who have made it there before me. I can see Him smiling and waiting to hug me. I know He is waiting for you too!

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