I couldn’t believe it when I looked up and saw this road sign while driving through Columbus on Monday afternoon.

My husband and I were in Ohio for the Mike Furrey Foundation Dinner, and I found myself driving through the part of Columbus where we had spent many, many weeks with Nick during his radiation treatments.  Restaurants, shopping malls, and pharmacies were all bringing back such vivid, painful, and yet fond memories of those days with Nick when we lived temporarily in that part of the city for 6 weeks at a time two different times.

As I drove, I looked up and saw this road:

Hard Road

I grabbed my camera and snapped this as I was driving by.  I had never noticed the name of that road before, but I knew when I saw it that God was affirming that I was on a hard road that day. 

Sometimes life takes us here unexpectedly.  Sometimes we make choices that put us here as a consequence.  And sometimes we find ourselves traveling this road over and over again for different reasons.

Maybe you’re on this road right now.  If you are, I just want to encourage to keep on moving. 

That’s what I had to do on Monday.

Did it make it any easier?

Not really.

But did I drive off of that road eventually?

Yes.

Will I be on it again someday?

Most definitely.  And in ways I could probably never imagine while sitting here tonight.

But I’ve learned enough to know this:

God has been with me on hard roads time and time again, and I am confident that He will be with me for all future journeys on the easy and the hard roads.

With that knowledge, I do not have to fear any road signs ahead that say:

Hard Road

Luke 3:4-6

As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet: 
   A voice of one calling in the desert,
   ‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
      make straight paths for him.
Every valley shall be filled in,
      every mountain and hill made low.
   The crooked roads shall become straight,
      the rough ways smooth.
And all mankind will see God’s salvation.’