You Take the High Road and I'll Take the Access Road

A couple of nights ago I was leaving church and had turned onto the access road to I-35. I had the windows down and I think the radio was off. It was a nice, cool night.

On the right, the cars on the highway were roaring by, zipping past what was on my left: lush, wooded land with deer and bugs and stuff. Quiet.

As I looked at both sides of the road, I realized that life is like that. Part of life is moving and fast paced. I mean, there are times we simply have to be on the move.

Other parts of life are like the wooded area. There are times when we need to slow down, take a walk, look for deer, enjoy the trees and grass. Breathe it in. Stop. Rest.

Maybe, however, we need to be more of the person on the access road. If need be, we can simply slip onto the highway, but we must look for an exit because if we stay on that kind of pace, we'll run out of gas. But, if we find that it's time to exit back to the access road and maybe pull off to park in the grass for awhile, we'll find we have enough gas for the next entry.

I think the access road is a great way to look at life. You're going at a good pace, able to get somewhere, but you aren't going to fast to miss life, and you aren't so wrapped up in nothing that you never join the adventure. It's easy to refuel on the access road. It's easy to jump on the highway.

A fast-paced life will get you somewhere fast. But, you might miss so much beauty if you never get off the highway. And a life given to nothing will get you, well, nothing.

Stay on the access road.

Where do you "drive" most of the time?