Know Your Territory

My father was an explorer. I don’t mean that he would take off on trips to the Antarctic, or jungles of South America. He was the type of person who believed one should follow a road to see where it went. He liked to study maps, and we went on excursions almost weekly on Western Washington’s roads “less traveled”, or at least not previously traveled by our family. Back roads were his specialty.

After all of us kids grew up and left home and the folks retired, we’d get frequent reports of overnight trips over back roads (including logging roads) to places we’d never heard of, even though we’d all grown up in Western Washington. Since my father was also a railroad buff, it was not uncommon for us to hear of trips over logging roads to explore for abandoned railroad trestles left by logging companies before the 1950’s. About ten years ago, they moved from Washington State to Arizona where they’ve continued, at a slower pace, their ramblings until recently. They’re both now in their mid-80’s.

Not long ago I went to visit them and Dad and I started talking about some of the places we’d been years ago. He used to have a road map, the kind you used to be able to get from the precursors of convenience stores, known as service stations. It was obviously an old map. On it, over the years he had marked every road in Washington State he’d ever driven on. He’d even made the attempt to include all the logging roads, none of which had been printed on the map. With the exception of the far northeast corner of the state, there were virtually no printed roads devoid of his pen. Obviously, he knew that state.

Later, I was reading the Bible and read in 1 Corinthians where Paul said he was determined not to know anything but Christ among the church at Corinth. And I thought of the many times where Paul described his knowing the Lord. I thought of John, often referred to as the “beloved” apostle, who in his short epistles emphasized over and over again our need of knowing Christ. And I wondered, if a “map” of Christ, His nature, character, and life was available, would their versions be covered the way my father’s map of Washington had been?

One of my favorite authors once wrote, “We would do well to spend a thoughtful hour each day contemplating the life of Christ, especially the closing scenes.” My father and I were able to reminisce of the many times we’d spent together on the roads of Washington. If I laid the road map of my life out, and spread over it the map of Christ, could I find many places we’d been together? Or would it be like that one corner of my father’s map of Washington, a place we didn’t really spend much time together?

May your day today be a wonderful experience walking with the Lord, and may your map with Him continue to grow daily.

Why can’t they make road maps that re-fold themselves?

Dr. G