Out Our Way: Beware of the barrow ditch - Proverbs 4:27

Out our way, the roads are usually two lanes at most and on either side is a barrow ditch. Out our way, some folks call ’em “Borrow” ditches as they “borrowed” the soil from them to form the raised road bed. Works for me.

Most times, you don’t need to worry about the ditches, but in winter it can be a real hazard especially with a horse trailer behind you. Black ice can be treacherous and in some of our winters the asphalt is buried under so much ice, you can’t see the tar. Its times like these driving is real tricky.

I recall driving a lonely patch of road and hitting some “black ice.” I wasn’t going that fast, but I was certainly sliding and heading for the barrow ditch. Now, my first instinct was to turn hard left, but that began sending me to the barrow ditch on the other side. Fortunately, I remembered to put the truck in neutral and gently apply the breaks and, above all, not jerk the wheel in a panic. Eventually we managed to straighten out and stay on the road.

As I have likely mentioned before in other writings, an ancient wise Church leader in the third century once noted that the Enemy can attack from either the left or the right and regardless from what direction he comes, he remains the enemy. Hence the warning to not be distracted by the Enemy but focus his or her eyes on Christ.

In this day and age, it seems that wisdom could do some good in Washington, D.C., … and for those of them who reject religion and the words of a Christian pastor, perhaps they will heed the words of an old cowboy and understand the danger of the barrow ditch. Loud shrieks and rants from the left and from the right, accusing each other of anything they can imagine is what the media focuses on, and the senator or representative who just stays focused on the nation and the work of government is ignored — or worse, is chastised by their party for not joining in the mob mentality of the party leadership. Fortunately, while the media focuses on the left and the right lunatic fringe, some solid and decent men and women quietly refuse to get sucked in and stay focused on the job of running the nation. Hopefully they will manage to get Congress back on the road and moving forward again

This “barrow ditch” theology, as I call it, is not a bad bit of advice for the rest of us as well, for I know from personal experience, that it is easy to get so worried and distracted by the flaws and faults of others, I fail to deal with my own. More intent on resisting the challenges and criticism of my opinion, my mind is closed to hearing a different — and perhaps a correcting — point of view. We all know people, both on the left and on the right, whose philosophy is: “Don’t bother me with facts, my mind is already made up.” That attitude will get you sliding off the road into the ditch sooner or later.

Of course there are also those who assume anything new has to be better. They reflect the old Jewish proverb warning: “Don’t be so opened-minded that your brains fall out.” They, too, are blind and deaf to reason and while they avoid the barrow ditch of radical conservatism, they slide right into the ditch of radical liberalism

The road may curve — swinging lift and then swinging right — for there is indeed a “time for every season.” Ignore the devil who leaps from the left to get you to swing right, or leaps from the right to get you swing left. Focus on staying on the road, for the Enemy owns the barrow ditches on both sides, but has no power on the King’s Highway.

Blessings,

Brother John Bruington