I have long since accepted that snow-packed highways and dense whiteouts are part of life in Ontario in the winter. And late winter storms have a tendency to surprise the unsuspecting public, or perhaps I should say the naïve who flip the calendar to April and think that winter is over! But on a particular day in late March 1965 ,we did not fall into the class of the naïve. We were prepared for a storm, and as predicted, it arrived without mercy.
We had been married less than a week and after loading up our car with wedding gifts that had been stored at my parent’s home in North York (Willowdale, as I knew it!), we set out for our new home and our new life in London. Given the hour drive from Willowdale to Kitchener in such inclement weather, my anxiety level, already high, rose dramatically when we made a stop to visit my father-in-law in the restaurant on the highway between Guelph and Kitchener.
While my new husband and his father enjoyed small talk about cars and such, I sat silent and motionless—like a mouse eyeing a stalking cat— watching the snow build up on the cars in the parking lot and witnessing the black asphalt be transformed into a white carpet. Both men appeared oblivious to the raging snowstorm and I wanted to exclaim, We need to leave, and now, but the daunting presence of my new father-in-law kept me silent. (Having said that, I must add that over the years my unfounded fear abated and I came to respect and love him, despite his ornery persona.)
Time passed. Snow mounds grew on the sills of the restaurant windows and then, as though an alarm had sounded, both men looked outside and my dear father-in-law exclaimed, “You two need to get going. Looks like a storm is brewing.” Ya think! I almost exclaimed, but the mature part of me (and a sprinkling of fear of this daunting man) prevented me from speaking. Even so, with the words fresh from his lips, I was on my feet faster than a speeding bullet. With my coat on and purse in hand, I headed out into the storm, unintentionally failing to hug my father-in-law goodbye.
Over the years, we have driven in stormy weather and lived to tell our tale. And of all the…dare I say hundreds of times we have driven in whiteout conditions when the road appeared impassable and the vision nil, we always arrived safely. That March day was no different, but not without a near-miss accident that lives in my mind every winter’s day when falling snow leaves vision at zero and driving in it a threat to one’s safety.
You see, we were just half a mile from the gas station restaurant where we had stopped to visit Harry, when it happened. The hidden ice under the snow. The non-existent edge between the asphalt and the gravel. The spin that took us 360 degrees on the highway. The guardrails that flashed by as we helplessly spun. And the centre of the road where we sat seconds later facing in the right direction, unscathed. Needless to say, the drive from there was silent, other than Doug asking me if I was alright, and my answering him with a quiet yes.
I have since driven by those guardrails countless times. In the early years, I stared at them and the ditch below, and my heart swelled with thankfulness. Now, I drive by them with little thought that they are there to protect me, to help me drive in a certain direction, on a certain path for my own safety! I simply take them for granted.
Which leads me to a different type of guardrail…the guardrails of life which some might call boundaries or rules or standards. Whatever label you put on them, they serve in much the same way as those roadside guardrails, with one exception. Although each provide protection and guidance, the guardrails of life also provide wisdom that keeps us on the right path as we live life. I read recently that the “Ten Commandments and other commandments of God are guardrails on the highway of life. If you do not fully understand their intention, the rules and commands of God could seem restrictive. Yet in reality God has given us commands and standards so we may live life to the fullest. The journey of life is not about the boundaries that have been set in place. The boundaries exist so we can safely complete the journey of faith.”*
When I consider the importance of these guardrails—or boundaries or rules—I can’t help wondering if our youth, our future generation have had them removed, leaving them exposed to a way of life that author and pastor, John Piper calls, “a winding and troubled road with obstacles, curves, dangerous cliffs and the unknown.” What guidance, what protection, and what wisdom are they offered when biblical standards, or guardrails are no longer present? What decisions have been made that have removed the possibility of children living healthy, purposeful lives, first simply as children and then as grounded adults?
The expression “anything goes” comes to mind when all things are accepted or acceptable; nothing is off-limits. The boundaries have been removed. There are no rules for behaviour, or so it seems; freedom to make unwise, life-changing decisions are left to the young and the innocent who are oblivious to understanding the folly of their choices. And again, I can’t helping wondering what in the world has happened to the adults? Where have they/we gone? Why have we left the innocent to flounder in life? Because they will flounder, they will struggle when exposed to the “dangerous cliffs and the unknown.”
Why have we failed in our responsibilities as adults and left radical decisions to children? In removing the biblical standards—the guardrails of life—that protect our young, it would appear that we have removed God and have settled for a secular society that is full of spiritual indifference, selfishness, and religious extremism.
“Only fools say in their hearts, ‘There is no God.’”
Psalm 14:1
* Jamie Snyder. Thou Shall: Freedom to Strip Away the “NOTS” and Discover What God Really Wants
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