What roads have you traveled in your life? Where have you been? Where are you going?

A few roads stick out in my own story:

There is the road that runs right outside my little white house with its bright red door. It is a street lined with neighbors – children giggling, elderly gardeners working, couples quarreling (one named Dave and Heidi). This road is paved and smooth, except for the occasional pothole. It isn’t too busy and has a straight shot to the grocery store.

There’s also the gravel road I grew up on, learning how to ride my bike with many tears and rocks embedded in my knees as I fell off and got back on, fell off, and got back on. Along with the sense of triumph and victory, of freedom, that came with learning and growing and stretching myself until I could ride with pigtails flapping in the breeze.

I can’t forget the roads on the mountains of Haiti. Trekking 3 hours or longer for an airport pick- up, a shopping trip, a meeting, some paperwork in the city. There were petite bananas alongside those roads, villages, goats, marketplaces, and always trucks and motorcycles winding back and forth until the mountain gave way to the sea.

Literally and figuratively -- I’ve conquered hiking paths up on various other mountains and been rear-ended in the middle of a busy street. I’ve been on roads filled with sunshine and laughter and freedom, and dark roads, scary roads, lonely roads, and roads I wasn’t sure would ever lead anywhere really.

Back to you again: what have the roads looked like in your life? Tell me in the comments. We’re all headed in different directions, crossing paths occasionally, wandering alone at times.

Whoever said life’s a journey was not joking! Throughout this life we’ll encounter so many different highways and trails, paths and tracks that we won’t even be able to remember them all …

But God does.

God sees us walking along the road, running along the path, headed to our next pitstop or being dragged by life with our feet digging hard into the dirt by our stubbornness.

Every road, every path, every barely visible trail through the grass is from Him.

He is Designer and also fellow Traveler.

It can be hard to see Him at times; the very roads He has placed in our life can demand so much of our energy that we miss the Savior with the knapsack ambling alongside of us – step by step, mile by mile.

This fall, let’s walk a road together and intentionally taking some time to see that Savior and all those paths He places before us.

It is quite amazing how much work God does on roads and paths across the pages of Scripture, but maybe we shouldn’t be surprised based on all the work He has done and is doing in our own lives on paths and roads. Perhaps looking at one – God’s Word -- will help us see the other -- God’s work on our own roads -- more clearly, and perhaps sharing one -- God’s work on our own roads -- will help us connect to the other – God’s Word -- more easily.

There’s Abraham and the visitors who bring him shocking and exciting news … on a road.

There’s a son, bruised and beaten by his own bad decisions, hoping for forgiveness … on a road.

There’s an Ethiopian trying to find truth and hope, and finding both in a very Star Trek moment … on a road.

There’s Jesus healing, Jesus teaching, and Jesus saving…on a road.

Join me and author Katie Koplin of Loved in Spite of Self for what’s sure to be an adventure through winding roads, rocky roads, straight paths, and nearly hidden trails that leads to some beautiful, life-giving restoration.

Look for an outline and further invitation to this 6-week online study in August when we return from Summer Break. Until then, follow us on social media and grab some details and teasers as we post them.

It might help to get our eyes open to the roads in our lives by actually looking and seeing what they look like. So, let’s do just that! All summer long, show us your places and spaces, the roads before you every day, and the roads you encounter on special journeys. Tag us @heidigoehmann and @lovedinspiteofself so we can see them and share them! Use the hashtags #roadsphotochallenge. When you share and tag us, you’ll be entered into a drawing to win our road trip prize pack to be given away in a live event on our Facebook page, August 1st, 2019.

Until then, may your journey be full of roads, not always smooth, never boring, but always, always shared with one another and with that quiet Traveler and His knapsack loving us through all the way.