Speed Bumps and Pot Holes

Driving in Guatemala is NOT like driving in the States!  Besides the narrow roads, the lack of street signs, the abundance of dirt roads, frequent flooding, long traffic jams, and the complete lack of driving laws, one must also learn to navigate around the parked cars, staggering or passed-out drunken men, young children playing in the streets, processions, and more stray dogs than you can imagine...not to mention the chickens, pigs, goats, etc.  It is not uncommon  to suddenly come to a plant or a large tree limb in the middle of the road.  These are signs that indicate that you need to slow down or stop.  It might be due to road construction, a closed road, a broken down vehicle, etc.  Or my personal  favorite Guatemalan “traffic cone” is a rock, which may or may not have white paint splattered on it, strategically placed in the center of the road.  This kind of “traffic cone” leaves you no option but to stop…sometimes against the rock, depending on how dark it is at the time.

To complicate matters just a bit further, there are  also an over-abundance of speed bumps and pot holes.  Sometimes those pot holes are so big in diameter and so deep that they seem more like sinkholes.  Needless to say, it takes extra patience and skill...and sometimes even a sense of humor...to navigate the streets of this country!

In many ways, life is like driving in Guatemala.  Life is full of emotional highs and lows.  It is full of speed bumps and pot holes, narrow roads, and people that don’t follow the “rules”.  There are plenty of small obstacles in the way around which we must navigate in order to get to our destination.  Sometimes  there are big obstacles in the way that warn us to slow down, or that completely stop us in our tracks. 

It is so easy, at times, to allow those pot holes in life’s journey to bring discouragement….something of which I have been struggling recently.  Sure, they may slow us down a bit.  They may even completely stop us for a short time, but we are called to keep going…keep running toward the finish line…and do it with the peace and joy that God offers us. 

Sometimes life demands a little extra work, a little extra patience, and a sense of humor.  But with God’s help, we can still get where we need to go.  We can still navigate through it all and reach the finish line with joy.

Why do I allow speed bumps and pot holes to bring discouragement into my life when my Master and Best Friend is the One who created the mountains with His breath?!!!

"I lift up my eyes to the hills.  Where does my help come from?  My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.”  
                                                       Psalm 121:1-2