The Road Outside My Front Door

Bill Brown ... Xiamen University
"You have made known to me the path of life..." Psalm 16:11

Psa 27:11 Teach me your way, O LORD; lead me in a straight path Psalm 27:11

A Xiamen friend never imagined that when she kissed her husband good by, it was really good by. Just two hours later, while visiting their factory across Xiamen Bay in Haicang, he died of a heart attack. We just never know what waits outside our front door. Of course, the road beyond it is a lot smoother and faster nowadays, especially in our shrinking China, but even so the day will come when this road ends, and then the real journey begins.

Shrinking China In about an hour I will take the bus to Fuzhou (former Foochow) for 3 days of lectures. In Marco Polo's day the trip from Xiamen to Fuzhou took a week, and many never survived it. A century ago it took 5 days. Ten years ago it was a 10 to 15 hour drive. Today, it is 4 hours by bus. In a year the new train will cut it to two hours. But no matter how fast we go, one certainty that remains is I have no idea where the road will take me today--but that is okay. What matters is that 1), I'm ready for the day, and 2), I do go out that door (just getting out the door is half the battle sometimes!).

My Favorites During a radio interview with a Beijing radio station a couple months ago, I shared my "favorite book, movie and song". A favorite quote was Tolkien's:

"The Road goes ever on and on,
Down from the door where it began,
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say."

1. Life is a Road. I have always loved the road. In the Air Force I bicycled and hitchhiked around Taiwan half a dozen times. I hitchhiked over 3000 miles around Mexico (with no money, living with peasants). In 1994 our family drove over 40,000 Km. around China, to Tibet and back. In 1995, to make sure our sons understood America at least as well as China, we drove over 40,000 miles around the U.S. But whether I'm on the road or at home, life itself is an exciting journey, with a destination, and each of us has a different path laid out before us.

2. Many Small Roads, One Larger Way. My own life and path is small and seemingly insignificant, but it does have a purpose as long as I have Direction. We are each a living thread, lovingly woven by our Father on the loom of life into a tapestry, but if we went our own way, or if we were all the same color and went the same direction, He'd end up not with a tapestry but a throw rug or a bedsheet. So I need to follow his direction, and the One Road he has prepared for me, and me alone. As Job said, "Will you keep to the old path that evil men have trod?" Job 22:!5

3. One step at a time. I might never have driven the 3-month, 40,000 km. trip to Tibet and back had I known what we'd face in Mongolia and the dunes of the Gobi Desert. The trip was tolerable and enjoyable (usually) 0nly because we focused on one stretch of road at a time, one day at a time, knowing that each mountain crossed or river forged (yes, in a van!) put us closer to Lhasa on the way out, or Xiamen on the way back. In the same way I take life a day at a time, and though I have no idea of what today may bring, I'm certain of Tomorrow because I know my ultimate destination, even I don't know all the twists and turns I'll take to get there.

4. Whither today? Regardless of what the road holds for me today, eventually our "many paths and errands meet" and if I complete today's journey, I shall be one step closer to that "larger way." So as Bilbo would have said, were he here today:

Whither today? I cannot say!
I've never been this way before.
But I in confidence can pray
for courage to go out my door,
and not just crawl, or walk, but run.
Not just endure but to have fun.
For brief the journey and light the load,
When traveling on my Father's road.
And when I finally reach the end,
yet greater journeys will begin.

Provided I survive driving in China, that is!

http://ourdailynoodles.blogspot.com/2008/12/my-favorite-book-movie-song.html

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