Knowing where you are and where you want to end up are two very different things. If it isn’t snow, its drifting snow, and if it isn’t drifting snow its mud, not isolated soft places on a gravel road mind you, but to-the-axel bona fide dirt road mud. In 25 years, the county road bordering a lower pasture has never been impassable … until now.

Successive snows led to the need to keep drifts at bay by pushing snow ever higher along the county’s 30-foot easement setback. The piles, acting as additional snow fencing, continued to grow over several weeks of consecutive storms. As piles melt, the water from a quarter mile of barrow ditch snow continues to slowly migrate with the topography, in this case to the other side of the road. The combination of deep ruts, standing water and very little gravel base is not helpful for getting anywhere fast. Even slow would be nice.

Several factors came together in the right moment to produce the perfect mud storm. Wind velocity and direction, total precipitation, depth of snow and ground cover all had a part in it all, as did the human quotient. More that a few of the ruts could have been avoided if we had foregone unnecessary trips to town. What can we say. After the fourth storm or so, it became personal. Thank heavens for the neighbors who helped everyone keep going by checking on them and making sure they were safe. But for a feedlot loader and a benevolent neighbor, our drive might still be closed and the propane tank dangerously low.

The template for all this is analogous to faith building. Factors are often similar, but how they are encountered (and in what order) can easily and quickly change our perceptions of what there is to learn. Few of us can declare we know everything we need to know to make life work, let alone get through the mud of our daily existence. It is messy and complicated at best. If you go too fast, you risk getting stuck. If you go too slow, you risk getting stuck. If you stop, you risk miring in.

No wonder religion prefers easy pat answers. If it was merely a matter of where the crow flies, we all would agree on the route. Two hundred yards of bottomless muck, however, can influence how we get from point A to point B. Once we arrive, we all will have stories to share of detours taken and trials endured. Regardless of how we arrived safely, there will be gratefulness and relief to have landed on solid ground.

“In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. (John 14-2-3, NRSVUE)

The welcome mats are out, the path firm and navigable. The way will eventually dry. Until then, we have choices to make and others to be mindful of. A few inches of mud will not keep us from taking the high road.