Cut a Straight Road
One summer in Middle School I spent a couple of weeks with my Great Uncle Wayne, helping on his farm in central Indiana. It was a ton of work, but also buckets of fun, learning about farm life, eating huge lunches with lots of fresh corn, operating a small tractor and front end loader and all kinds of other equipment we had only in miniature at home. Probably the highlight though was getting to drive his pickup truck on the road. I hadn’t driven much at all before this, but of course it was something I dreamed about often, anticipating the day when I finally had the freedom to drive on my own!
One of the things Uncle Wayne seemed most concerned about was my ability to drive straight and to stay on the road. In my defense, some of those farm roads gradually morphed into the surrounding foliage, performing disappearing acts without warning. Plus, to me, this was farm life, where offroading is not just a possibility, but a necessity! So I may not have been as careful as he would have liked. His favorite phrase became, “Watch out for that culvert!” I didn’t even know what a culvert was (or other antique words he used like davenport and lavatory) but I knew it had something to do with the edge of the road. Without a doubt, what I needed then, and what he was slowly providing, was the ability to accurately and carefully handle his pickup truck.
This month’s memory verse is 2 Timothy 2:15, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.” This is a famous verse among our Wednesday night children’s crowd, as it is the basis for the AWANA name and program, “Approved Workers Are Not Ashamed.” The latter part of the verse also speaks to how we hope our children will approach God’s word, “rightly handling the word of truth.” As they memorize God’s Word, we also want them to understand and apply His word accurately. The word for accurately could also be translated as “cutting a straight road,” or, when applied to the message of truth, it means “imparting without deviation.”
Just as Uncle Wayne wanted me to stay on the road and watch out for wheel-bending obstacles, our prayer is that each member of our gospel-centered, Bible-believing church, would be faithful to God’s Word, to handle it with care, to represent it well, and impart it to others “without deviation.” May God give each of us wisdom as we study His Word and share the gospel with others all over the South End of Louisville!
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