"I press toward the mark (toward the goal) to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."
Philippians 3:14
We were driving into the Serengeti National Park on a dusty, bumpy dirt road. In the USA, it would be considered a one-lane road, but not in Africa. If oncoming traffic appeared, you just slow down and pull over until the dust has settled enough to see again. It didn't take us too long to understand the meaning of Serengeti. "Endless plains where the land meets the sky." And truly, as far as the eye could see, that was apparent. I couldn't help but think we were literally in "the ends of the earth" as mentioned in Acts 1:8. Beauty and solace surrounded us in every direction.
We saw a few animals on the drive into the park, but nothing massive or up close. Then seemingly out of nowhere, we came across a herd of wildebeest who had decided it was a great idea to have a big family reunion right in the middle of the road. Now, if you've never seen a wildebeest, let's just say they are pretty homely. I had seen them before, and I really didn't have a desire to bring home pictures of them to show to all my friends. I definitely never anticipated writing about them. But this herd was so massive that it was somehow beautiful and captivating.
We had the top open in the vehicle while our driver navigated his way through the herd. Some of us stood up and watched as one by one, the wildebeest would jump out of the way just a moment before our vehicle would hit it. We slowed down, but we never stopped or even honked the horn. There were thousands and thousands of them, as far as the eye could see, but we kept pressing on. It gave us a glimpse of what the Israelites experienced when the Red Sea was parted. I'm not exactly sure how long it took us to get to the point where the road was clear again, but I think it was close to ten or fifteen minutes.
For me, this was a poignant, and very visual application of Philippians 3:14. "I press toward the mark (toward the goal) to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." How many times do we hit roadblocks in our life and just stop or give up completely on what God has called us to do?
Sometimes we hit roadblocks without even knowing that's what they are because we haven't established the mark. Sometimes we hit roadblocks because we don't have a plan to get to the goal. We know what the goal is, but we don't know which way to move to get there.
This week I had lunch with a long-time friend. We were talking about how so many Christians know what they believe, but they don't know how to articulate it in a way that others can understand the clear plan of salvation. It's not that they don't want to share their faith, they just never learned how. Yes, in a sense, that is a huge roadblock that many Christians face. They are stopped dead still in the middle of the road, without a plan to press on.
My sixteen year old daughter Amber has been going on mission trips with me since she was nine years old. She learned all the Bible verses for the plan of salvation at any early age, and she not only knows what she believes, but she can clearly tell others. During the school year, rarely a week goes by when she doesn't share a story of how she was able to witness to someone who crossed her path. However, I can't say the same thing of my thirteen year old son Jacob.
You see, Jacob has some differences. I used to call them "special needs" but God has intervened in so many areas of his life that "special needs" doesn't necessarily give the right connotation. (Jacob has Aspergers, but at one point in his life he was completely non-functioning. If you don't know his story, you can see a video on youtube by searching "Amber Banfill Original Oratory".) But because of these differences, his experiences have been much different from that of his sister. Until now, we haven't even considered letting him go on a mission trip. Now don't get me wrong - this boy loves Jesus. His heart is so sensitive to things of the Lord. He wants to go on a mission trip and serve, but we have known as parents that he wasn't emotionally ready or mature enough to go.
But God convicted me after coming back from Africa that as Jacob starts to mature and get to the point where we could actually consider taking him, there was still another roadblock. As a parent, I had never invested the time to teach him how to articulate his faith. I have been failing him by not giving him the right map. So this week, Jacob started learning the "Romans Road." (If you're not familiar with this term, there are a series of verses in the book of Romans that you can use to clearly share the plan of salvation. Romans 3:23, 5:8, 6:23, 10:9-10, 10:13.) He's memorized two verses so far, and he's determined to keep learning until he can clearly share his faith. He's determined to remove that roadblock that is standing in the way of him going on a mission trip.
I definitely have a new perspective of wildebeest these days. Those ugly creatures tried to keep us from pressing on, but our driver knew the path and how to overcome the roadblock in our way.
Talk to the Driver of your life (God). Identify the goal. Remove the roadblocks. Then press on! Like I discovered, sometimes the only roadblock is you.
---Beth Banfill
www.GodandMe2theMax.com