Road Closed Ahead

As I drove to the church this morning at 4:30 AM, I came up on a sign in the dark and fog that said, "Road Closed Ahead." I knew the road and I knew where it was closed and why it was closed. We are on a major four lane highway and IDOT (Illinois Department of Transportation) is putting a tunnel under the highway for a walking path that runs directly behind our church property. They have switched four lanes into two and traffic in both directions will be on one side of the road and then later switch and move to the other side of the road as they dig this tunnel.

My reaction was to stop and go no further. But my action was to drive right around the sign and keep on going up the road to the church driveway. Which is where I was going anyhow. But, as I did, I wondered how many people will come to church on Sunday and stop at the sign that says, "Road Closed Ahead," and not proceed any further with their plans. Never mind that the church doors are open and there will be services held. Despite our efforts to let people know what is going on with the roads around us, there will be those who will be too cautious to drive past the sign. There will be those who will use the sign as an excuse "to not have to go to church this Sunday." (Boy are they in luck--the road is supposed to be closed for ten weeks!) And there will be those who are coming to church for the first time who will simply turn around and go home because they are unsure of what they are doing anyhow. It should be interesting to see what happens to our numbers in the next ten weeks.

But this goes deeper than a blacktop road being closed. Sometimes roads are closed in the spiritual realm that we Christians are supposed to be living in (John 3:3). Sometimes they are closed by God because the timing isn't right just yet. Sometimes they are closed by Satan because he doesn't want something great to happen. Sometimes they are simply closed because someone around us has other plans. We need to be in tune with Jesus and be aware of what and why and when and for how long the road is going to be closed. If what we are wanting to do is from Jesus, it will open again when the timing is right. We need to make sure that when we run up against the sign that says, "Road Closed Ahead," we don't just stop, turn around and walk away from the direction that we started to go in the first place. Think about it!