Most all of us travel by car and get the idea and need for painted lines as we travel down the roads of life, sometimes at excessive speeds. Generally we know where we’re going, whether through the help of an app or familiarity we pray to arrive safe and sound. Most all of our trips are intentional. We have a destination in mind are not set out “wheresoever the winds will take us”
How often though do we have unintended trips? You know the kind I’m talking about when the in-laws decided to come, or decided not to leave. Or the type where the kids added all these variants on the way to the soccer field, so that what started out simple enough turned into extra friends, their animals, lots of unusally weird odors, and many more beverages getting spilled in the back seats than – intended.
Those memorable moments, yeah, while they may be not getting Instagram”ed”, do get into what ‘traveling between the painted lines’ offers you in this way of life as a parent, leader, or market place worker. And I think we can take an example from the Apostle Paul and look at his life and see if some of these “unintended travels” produced the same memorable moments you had as he did for the furthering of his work that was intended.
When we read the adventures of Paul, sure enough on the surface every reader was seeing the fruit of his labor with the Missionary trips that were taking place. The number of church plants that sprung up from the seeds of truth about the risen Christ being planted. And when perhaps looking into your own life you can extract the same thought, or at least tell others how successful were these intended moments.
However, in your case and in the case of Paul, upon further investigation we know that’s only surface and there were tales of being stoned, left in the deep waters for days, being beaten with 39 lashes, etc. There was truly the road blocks, and speed bumps, that were in place to hinder the travels. Even the arresting of what he had been commissioned for.
Now your trip to the soccer field or grocery store may have seemed that bad, and certainly you have your own horror stories from the day at the airport or DMV that could rival.
But did Paul know what he was signing up for? That verse that describes “I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.” (Acts 9:16) must have been at the forefront of his mind each time he was to set foot outside the door. Of course, you might do the same when you think back to that term “I do”, because none of knows what hangs in the balance of our decisions.
Paul did know that he was driving toward the prize of the upward calling in Christ Jesus (Phil. 3:14). He did now that was his intended aim. Do you know yours? He knew the importance of staying in his intended lane. His intended lane is not yours, and vice-versa.
By staying in his lane he knew that this lane along the way, would become more restricting, narrower, and uncertainty ahead. But he also knew this was for the furtherance of the Gospel. To work to bring those out of darkness. (Acts 28:26-27) God has specified that we each would have our own road for which we’d travel, but principally they are to produce the same fruit.
Paul did not set out to write a bunch of letters, or lead an organization called “the church” as an occupation. In fact he believed the Lord was coming back in his time, as did the other disciples. As do you and I. Paul was simply addressing difficulties in the church, just as you do the arguments from the backseat. He stayed in his lane because it was producing a garden. Gardens are confined and defined spaces that hold dispensed seed for the purposes of producing food, medicines, and serenity.
Even in this short blog where we started out with this idea, has been unintended now that we’re discussing gardens instead of road trips. It’s in the un-intention that has the most value when you know the “for what” you set out for that makes it purposeful and memorable. Nobody wants aimless chaos in their life and say it’s just another Instagram moment. But we want to know that by staying in our lane, it’ll produce food in our “garden” that will produce hope, peace, and spiritual meal. It will eventually feed next generation as Paul did with his.
Our unintended travels however do each day make us captive, just as Paul experienced when have to travel to Rome where he could’ve been released from Agrippa, but instead he had appealed to Ceasar and would be held in detention 2 years before his beheading.
Neither you or I would like for that to be our road ahead, yet think of all the revelations that came from that imprisonment. Many things today are still being unfolded. Many seeds planted then are still being harvested. And that’s what I’m trying to encourage you with today. The narrowed, restricted road offers a more dangerous position. Confined and feeling cramped in our vehicles amongst the odors is never what we’d signed up for. But unknown destinations that arrest our thinking, well such unintended travels can produce more than a lifetime of produce for your family and friends.
