Growing up on a farm, I learned to drive early. If it had wheels and a motor, it was fair game. Lawn mowers, tractors, equipment, it didn’t matter. I may or may not have even learned to hotwire a thing or two when folks figured out leaving keys in the ignition was a bad idea. It was a “burden” that came with being a country kid. I mean, think about it, what could go wrong in the wide-open wilderness? Well…history and more than a few bumpers and fence post might hold the answer to that question.

One of the perks of this terrible burden I carried was that sometimes I got to drive on the road.  There I was barely able to shift gears in our old column shift Ford while simultaneously trying to see out of the cracked windshield. The only rule was, “Keep it between the ditches.” Now if that isn’t a rule for country boys, I don’t know what is. That was my dad’s way of telling me follow the cleanest path. It is there for a reason.

The story of Rachel, wife of Jacob, from the Book of Genesis is a great example of how a simple country-boy rule should apply to us all. Jacob loved Rachel. Yet, Rachel wasn’t satisfied with that road. She kept looking off the road for a faster, more bountiful road. She stole, manipulated, cajoled, and basically wasn’t a nice person at different times of her life. If you read her story with a modern lens, you would say she “wanted hers” and was willing to do whatever it took to get it. My dad would say, she didn’t keep it between the ditches. We are told that Jacob, her loving husband, buried her beside the road. The irony that her resting place was in the ditch, if you will, while Jacob was buried with the woman he didn’t initially want, or love shouldn’t be lost on us.

We are given some roads while others we choose. Some roads are rougher than others. Some roads are more scenic than others. Some roads lead to work while some roads lead to rest. Some roads lead to riches while some roads lead to ruin. Sometimes we listen to the GPS and sometimes we think we know a shortcut. Regardless of the road you find yourself on during this season of life, I hope you, “Keep it between the ditches.”