Route 66 By Randy Mantik I have always loved looking at road maps. Over the past few years, I’ve become fascinated with roads and routes that are no longer in use. One such road is the Yellowstone Trail, which was known in its heyday as “A great road from Plymouth Rock to Puget Sound.” Another road that became even more well-known was Route 66 — so popular it had a song written for it and an hour-long television drama done about it back in the ’60s. As I’ve looked at maps and watched a few documentaries about Route 66 lately, I’ve wondered just why it has remained so popular, even years after the name of the road was changed on the last section in the 1980s. It is a beloved icon of things past, but is it simply nostalgia or is it something deeper? I believe there’s a great spiritual lesson to be found within this question. Route 66 represents travel to another time with a certain destination gleaming enticingly in the distance. But there is no land of promise for us here. Fame is fickle, wealth uncertain, the biggest empires will eventually turn to dust. I think the deeper reason so many people love Route 66 so much is because it speaks to them of something deep in their soul that tells them of a journey each of us can take that will lead us to the real Promised Land. Many traveled Route 66 with a hope for fame and fortune, but I want to remind you that no human journey will ever lead you any closer to the wealth and fame you may so desire. There is only one guarantee in this life and that is a relationship with God and the eternal inheritance He promises. Abraham from Scripture is our example here. In his day, when everyone else was dreaming of a comfortable, urbane existence, he was headed the other way. Do you know that some scholars suppose that Ur of the Chaldeans, where Abraham was from, had many modern conveniences such as running water and paved streets? However, God called him out of there. Stephen, the first martyr, said, “Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran. ‘Leave your country and your people,’ God said, ‘and go to the land I will show you.’ So he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. After the death of his father, God sent him to this land where you are now living” (Acts 7:2-4, NIV). Abraham followed the path God laid out for him. There were no road maps, no signs, no bathrooms lining the way, no comfortable motels, no burgers, no fries, no hope of fame or fortune. All Abraham had was God’s promise. Stephen goes on to say, “He gave him no inheritance here, not even a foot of ground. But God promised him that he and his descendants after him would possess the land, even though at that time Abraham had no child” (Acts 7:5). It was a journey that led to the Promised Land. There were no busted dreams or avenues of forgotten hopes. Abraham got all that God promised and then some. Let’s look at Hebrews to finish the story: “By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God” (Hebrews 11:8-10). One more thing about Route 66. It is the only national monument we have that is not a fixed location — it spans many hundreds of miles. Our spiritual journey is not about a fixed locale; it’s not about looking back. It’s about looking ahead and moving along the path we know will lead us to our final and much-longed-for destination. When people traveled Route 66 back in the old days, they were not thinking of where they had left as much as where they were headed. That’s what kept everything from Conestoga wagons to Pontiac station wagons going down that road, mile after mile — the promise of getting there. That’s what keeps us going too. We are to keep our eyes on the prize, stay focused on the goal, and work with everything in us to get to that day when we can walk through the gates of heaven and straight into the outstretched arms of our beloved Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our Faith. Every single mile will be worth it when we see His dear face! “All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country — a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them” (Hebrews 11:13-16).
Posted on: Mon, 26 Jan 2015 11:00:00 +0000
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