The Driveway (Wednesday, May 31)
13 “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 14 Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. (Matthew 7:13-14 NKJV)
Standing at the end of the driveway that day was a watershed moment in my life. We arrived at this place with the intention of scoping out a potential site for our upcoming B.B. Gun battles, and we didn’t intend to spend much time there We certainly didn’t intend to get caught up in some bizarre mystery.
Once we saw that various hurdles that lay before us, we had a choice to make. We could have simply chosen to get back in Craig’s car and go look for another place, or we could have chosen to embrace the challenges before us and continue down the driveway. Can you guess what we chose?
The driveway itself looked like one of those roads that you only see in the horror movies. A road that would only lead to disaster, but a road that just begged to be traveled. It was a long, straight, and narrow drive, with trees lining both sides that formed a perfect canopy of branches with leaves that allowed only small breaks of sunlight to break through. The driveway itself was a mixture of gravel, fallen leaves, broken branches, and dirt. While the driveway was only a couple of hundred feet long, standing at the entrance to the driveway, it appeared to be an endless road that faded into a forest of trees, weeds, and decades of debris and other long forgotten items.
We immediately realized that driving down the length of the driveway was no longer possible. Almost two-thirds of the way down the driveway, spanning its entire width, was the fallen trunk of what once was a mighty oak tree. The sheer length and diameter of the tree made it all but impossible to move by human force alone. There was no way to drive either over, or around the tree. Even if you were to drive your vehicle down to the tree, there was not enough room in the driveway to turn around. You would be forced to make any retreat by driving backwards out of the driveway. And, as we would soon discover, a hasty retreat was almost always necessary.
The end of the driveway lay just a few feet past the fallen tree. Only the end wasn’t the end; it was just the beginning of an adventure that would soon become an obsession. What we discovered at the end of this seemingly long forgotten driveway was an amazing and terrifying adventure that would have more twists and turns, and stronger undercurrents, than the Missouri River itself. Some of the answers would eventually come, but many of those answers simply led us to more and more questions. Some of the answers defied all logic. Some of the answers simply could not be true, except they were. Some of the answers only became clear as we grew in our faith, and our understanding of God’s Word.
Standing at the entrance to this dark and narrowing driveway that day, Craig and I had no idea where that first step would take us. We had no idea the journey, both physical and spiritual, which lay before us. We had no idea the events that would unfold in the weeks and months to come. We had no idea the impact this would have our lives, and the lives of those around us. So, it was with great boldness and confidence, and perhaps not enough common sense to simply walk away, that we took that first step. We started out simply looking for a little adventure to pass the time, but what we found was so much more than we could have expected, were looking for, or could have ever dreamed possible.
Hindsight is truly 20/20. We can’t change the decisions that we have made in our past, but we can (and should) learn from them. I sometimes wish that Craig and I had chosen to just leave that day, but we didn’t. The consequences of that one decision impacted our lives, and the lives of so many close friends and family. While not always thankful for the decision we made that day (and the many more than followed), I am thankful for the lessons that God taught me through those events.
Join us next time for Those First Steps.
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