Paving The Way

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Where the Narrow Gate Girls live, it's been a diverse weather season. When my family visited over Easter they noted the potholes are like sinkholes. People are seriously driving deep into them and needing expensive repair work to their cars.

It's not like the road crews aren't out, I've seen them. My dad's last working years were at a town highway department and he often shared his wisdom on patching, paving and the like. I can't remember a lick of what he said, but I can say this...

Temporary fixes are temporary fixes.

The visual God gave me was from last fall on the road below us. It was the first day of school and that was the day the town chose to strip the road down and repave, if I'm getting my terminology right. The thing is, they took the road apart, stripped it down, and made it new.

It was a permanent fix, and this season it's the one road that is smooth driving.

When I reflect on the roads, God showed me it is much like my heart and what He is doing to it. As I blogged today over at The Surrendered Scribe, http://thesurrenderedscribe.blogspot.com/2008/04/stepping-into-clearing.html
health changes last year threw me into a refinement and transformation. I wanted it over fast and easy. I wanted a pothole patch fix.

God in His infinite wisdom, said no. He is stripping the road down to nothing so He can start over. Like the road pave on the first day of school it's incovenient, time consuming, hard and frustrating.

But the end road is a glorious one. Will my life be smooth sailing forever? No, and I don't want it to be that way, I want to need my Savior and if life gets too easy, I tend to forget Him. But this repavement process is worth it.

I feel like Spring is here in my life as much as it is outside. New opportunities, re birth. Summer is a season of activity, roads tend to be heavily used even when under construction. Fall is when things settle in and slow down, chill and finish up before a hibernation period of winter storms full of precipitation. Together all the seasons wear on the roads, so it makes sense they would wear on me too. So although I like the sound of easy fixes in my life, I get frustrated when I see a pothole patch because in short order, it's messed up again and my car falls in.

Can you relate?

What's God doing in your heart? Is He asking you for a repavement---a stripping of sorts to get to your foundation and start over? Are you fighting for a pothole fix, the temporary kind that doesn't last with changing weather and circumstances?

I know the process for me isn't done, but I definitely feel like God did a lot more than a pothole patchwork on me and I am grateful. Will you join me? Will you allow Him to Pave The Way?

Julie Arduini is a surrendered writer with her own blog, http://thesurrenderedscribe.blogspot.com/. A graduate of the Christian Writers Guild, she blogs for the Christian Writers Forum Sundays as the mommy blogger and is the Forum's book club facilitator.

She is active with FaithWriters and has several writings ready to publish in different books and anthologies in 2008-09. To get to know her better, read her interview by Lynda Schab at: http://www.faithreaders.com/featured-author-details.php?id=33%20
To contact Julie, please use the e mail provided in our profile.