The Winding Road

 "As the crow flies," Kibogora, Rwanda is only 110 km (just over 68 miles) from the country's capital city of Kigali. That's about the same distance from our home town of Kerrville, TX to the south-east side of San Antonio. Even when you consider San Antonio traffic, that distance can typically be covered in about an hour and a half (barring any traffic accidents).

This distance in Texas makes it feasible to leave Kerrville at 10am, sit down to eat lunch at your favorite restaurant, do several hours worth of shopping, and still be back home in Kerrville to watch your favorite evening sitcom. Here in Rwanda, however, it's a bit different. Here, those 110 straight line km's take about 6 hours to travel, shopping for just about anything in Kigali takes more than a few hours, and it's rare to even see a TV, much less watch a sitcom.

Wait, go back. Did I say it takes 6 hours to drive 110 straight line km's? Yep, I did. This snails pace can largely be contributed to the winding, hilly roads that actually accumulate to around 250 total kilometers (~155 miles), more than double the straight line distance. Even though our destination is north-east, this road we take takes us north, east, south, west, and everywhere in between before finally settling out in a predominantly north-east direction for the last 35 km's of the trip.

So, even though it's about the same straight line distance as going from Kerrville to San Antonio, going from Kibogora to Kigali and back is at least a 2 day trip, but typically more like 3-4 days.

It's been my experience that the path to being a Christian is a lot like traveling from Kibogora to Kigali. Very seldom is it that you see one go in a straight line directly to God. Most of us go the roundabout way... the one with all the winding roads and peaks and valleys. The one that can go from good to bad around any of the countless blind curves we go around. I've made a few modifications to to the map below to symbolize my view of the average Christian's walk with Christ. Take a trip with me (click here for larger map):

Genesis 1:27 reveals, "So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them." This means that we were born in God's image and are sinless until we discover Free Will, so let's start our trip there.

Many of us start our journey from Free Will not knowing exactly where we're heading or where we'll end up. We begin our walk, and instead of heading north-east towards God, we start out heading in the complete opposite direction. We run right into Satan's Trap and begin a downward spiral that takes us on long and dangerous road (Matthew 24:10-13). The time it takes to get down this curvy slope varies from person to person, but, somehow, most of us make it down and run straight into Trouble. Some of us don't spend much time in Trouble, while others sadly spend the rest of their lives there. For many, being in Trouble gives us a chance to assess where we are and where we're headed. Some people continue on the path that leads farther away from God, but, luckily something, perhaps stories we had heard in the past, pulls future Christians to take the path towards Jesus (2 Timothy 2:26).

We have all heard of Jesus before, many of us already knowing the full history prior to this day. Most of us know people that have come to Jesus before, and have heard how wonderful of an experience it was and how they were changed forever. For many of us, close relatives and friends, some including our own parents, had already found Jesus in the past and had been trying to get us to go to Jesus for years. But nothing could prepare us for the feelings we had on the day we found Jesus for ourselves. Jesus sits just inside the "Foret Naturelle de Hope," and we're awestruck at the beauty and awesomeness that surrounds Jesus. Somehow, it always seems like we find Jesus when we need to the most... almost like Jesus was looking for us (Luke 19:10)...

As we come to know Jesus, we are changed forever. Our paths have been changed, and, even though we aren't headed directly toward God, are now at least getting closer. Then, as we leave the "Foret Naturelle de Hope," we, for the first time in our lives, are headed straight towards God. We see warning signs that there are slippery roads ahead leading to Sin, and that we should turn from Sin, but we ignore them as we still feel like we're close enough to Jesus to be affected. Unfortunately, we haven't yet realized what it fully means to know Jesus, and, even though we know that Jesus conquered Sin a long time ago, we all go through Sin (1 John 1:8), and still let Sin push us back down. Once again, we fall farther from God. We constantly think about Jesus, but Sin had such a strong pull that we feel like we're too far from Jesus and God now, and that it's too late to correct the path we're on. Then, at rock bottom, we find Grace (2 Corinthians 12:9; Romans 6:14).


We see the beauty of Jesus in Grace. It's through Grace that our path is set straight and we start to climb back up, and that's when we find Faith (Ephesians 2:8). Then through Faith we find Hope. Then through Hope we find Love, the greatest of these (1 Corinthians 13:13). We start to understand all that we learned about Jesus and how big of a blessing finding Jesus was for us. As we move closer to God, we slow down and spend a lot time in Prayer. And Prayer leads us to Peace (John 16:33).

While in Peace, we see signs and remember what we learned about reaching Repentance (2 Peter 3:9). As we go through Repentance, we are cleansed from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9) and set on the final path toward God.

We now fully understand that, because Jesus conquered Sin, and because we were set on the right path through Grace, and because we followed the path through Repentance, we now stand innocent before God (Romans 3:24). Because of what happened through Jesus, we can now enter into God and become fellow citizens with God's people, and also members of his household (Ephesians 2:19).


So, where are you on this path? Many of you may already be citizens with God's people. Some may still be in Satan's Trap. Others may be broken down somewhere between Jesus and Grace, or between Hope and Faith, or possibly between Peace and Repentance. The good news is that there is no speed limit on the path between wherever you are and God. But you don't need to wait to continue your journey, because in God you're favorite restaurant will always be open and your favorite sitcom will always be on.