“Keep It Between the Ditches” (02/28/2026)

When I was growing up in rural south Georgia, I learned a lot of expressions that I’ve come to realize are not normal in the Midwest. I know because folks seemed taken aback when I use them. But those expressions have a way of summing things up in just a few words, so I still tend to use them; expressions like “as chaotic as trying to decorate a Christmas tree in a tornado” or “nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.” But there’s one that I use more often than most because it’s for just about every occasion – “Keep it between the ditches.”

At first glance, one might think it only has to do with driving, but one would be wrong. If you don’t know much about rural roads with ditches, let me give you a quick tutorial. Rural roads are rough and challenging. And the ditches have a way of sucking you and your car in if you get too close or worse make your way into them.

Those of us who are trying to follow Christ often call our journeys “the Way.” Jesus told us He is “the way and the truth and the life.” Life in Him, in other words, is the Way on which we want to travel through this life on earth because we know He is the “truth” – the full expression of the divine, the Word made flesh. And we believe that if we want to receive the life in abundance He promises, we must make that journey in faith, buoyed by hope, and fueled by love. And “the Way” has ditches, too, and we older pilgrims know how easily those ditches can suck us in and draw us away from Christ, the light of the world and the Son of God, and from the ones we are called to be.

So, daily I remind myself as I embark on the leg of the journey for that day, to “keep it between the ditches.” I remind myself that there is a true way, following in Christ’s footsteps. I warn myself not to get distracted and not to stray from the middle of the road, because bad habits have a way of pulling us away from the LORD and wrecking our hopes, changing us in ways we don’t really want.

So, today, I pray to the LORD for myself and for all of you that we can “keep it between the ditches” as we journey in, with and through Christ. I pray that all of us will be able to as pilgrims on this sacred journey to stay the course, with our eyes on Christ, in whose footsteps we seek to walk.

Until tomorrow, let us all love well.