New Blacktop

As I was driving home the other day, I realized another life principle through a common , everyday occurrence. Unless you do a good job repairing before you re-surface the street, very quickly the potholes will be noticeable.

There is a new community center being built on a fairly main street in our neighborhood. The sewer line was put in and it required digging several feet into the street. Well, the contractor filled in the ditch and it was quite smooth. In just a couple of weeks, it started sinking. It was patched again, and smooth as silk – for several more days. Then an orange traffic cone was placed in front of the dip. It had gotten pretty bad.

About three weeks ago, the county resurfaced the entire street – ¾ mile or so. Finally, an entire smooth road to travel. (There were quite a few holes and patches the entire length of the street, by the way.)

Guess what. The new sewer ditch is sinking again. As well, many of the bad spots under the new blacktop are quite noticeable.

This reminded me of how our efforts at resurfacing the rough areas in our lives only look and feel good for a very short time. Soon, the humps and bumps appear, which are painful reminders of our inadequate attempt to cover up, rather than change.

If we are to make lasting change, we must be willing to dig into the rough and low areas, discover the real problem, correctly repair those areas, then bring in the new blacktop.

It seems I remember Jesus saying something about whitewashing...