Road Construction

Getting back into my blogging after a year and a half hiatus. I apologize to both of my followers.

Today, I am going to take a little "detour" from the dorky titles and just let my horrible metaphors speak for themselves.

Earlier this week, I was going to the library and was surprised (and let's face it - irritated) to learn that the road that I normally take was "Closed to Through Traffic." (On a side note - I really hate that term. What exactly is "through"? That only tells me that it is closed somewhere between where I am and where the road ends. I only need to know if it is closed before or after my own personal destination.) So, I had to turn around in the high school parking lot, and I started thinking, "Whose bright idea was this to start a road construction project, on a road with 2 schools on it (one high school and one grade school,) the week before school starts???" They had all summer to do this. Why wait till now? It just didn't make sense to me.

And while we are on the subject of road construction that doesn't make sense: Why do they rip up 20 miles of interstate when they are only working on 1/4 mile at a time? And why on earth do they start 15 projects at once and work on them a little each week for the entire road construction season, rather than quickly finishing one project at a time? I'm sure there is some sort of reasoning to it, but I don't understand it.

So, while I am pondering this in my car, driving all the way around the block to get to the library, I had a very odd thought. I don't usually think this deep, so my only explanation is that it was Divine inspiration. Isn't this the same way that we try to fix ourselves? Certain times of year, like the start of school or the start of a new year, we get a wild hair to change everything that is wrong with us at once, regardless of what else is going on. We are going to be healthier, more organized, thriftier, more spiritual, and more productive. The reality is that we buy a gym membership (out goes thrifty), we are mentally exhausted from reading food labels and counting calories (bye-bye productive), we clean out all the closets, but can't afford to organize it the way we want thanks to that gym membership (so long organized), we stay up half the night trying to get everything done (no more healthy,) and now you are dozing off trying to read your Scriptures and can't find the energy to make it to Bible study (I think you can see where this is going.)

Wouldn't it be wiser to work on one thing at a time? Or maybe try a little moderation? Instead of "ripping up 20 miles of interstate," why not start by taking a 30 minute walk 3-4 times a week? Instead of starting 15 projects at once or trying to meet some sort of unrealistic deadline, why not try organizing one closet or room each week? After all, it's not like your life has a road construction season.