Old Swede Road

Mornings usually include waking up at 6:00 AM to have my private devotion and then to wake the girls up by 6:30 AM to get started on their day. So as to be on time, I have allotted a 2-3 minute buffer for this activity since I must daily debate, I must argue and ultimately convince them that going to school is important and waking up at that time is not an option. My husband has a much easier time and just at the mention of their individual names they awaken from the deepest slumber with such ease. Since nature has not granted me that deep, full voice that vibrates even to the panels of the wooden floor, I’ve accepted this daily struggle. Amidst all the chaos that follows, intermittently my eyes would gaze at the clock to see whether or not I am on track in my morning routine. Every activity down to the girls unscheduled bathroom trips has an allotted time.

It’s inconceivable to be out of sync, as my whole day depends on the seamless execution of my morning ritual. There have been times where just a couple of minutes off proved to be disastrous to the rest of my day. Traffic signals stand still, no parking at the school for drop off, and honking horns remind me of my failure to be true to my timeline and for me, my day can kick start or die at a specific location. That place is none other than Old Swede Road. Old Swede Road is a major thoroughfare that can make or ruin mornings, and what’s more it has the power to spread its deadly tentacles to send the rest of my day to hell. To hell because that’s what it feels like stuck behind a school bus going 25mph on a road meant to be driven at 45mph! There is no redemption and I’m left with time to think of the million ways I could have avoided this undesirable encounter with Old Swede Road.

You may be laughing at the frivolity of this morning ritual but it is a hypothesis that has been tested and proven. Like clock-work (pun intended), whenever I miss this important milestone I find myself encountering more red lights on the way to school, then the school doors are shut so I have to ring the bell, then I just stand there waiting for the door to be opened, then my daughter seems flustered so I have to go in and make sure she’s fine and the list goes on and on and on. These delays further contribute to me arriving late for work and with a series of ongoing negative outcomes, my mood is thrown off and I mentally prepare myself for a very bad day.

Being able to successfully meet Old Swede Road within the desired timeframe is the key to the success of my days, weeks, months and even years! On one occasion, I sought to share this ritual with a friend and the word she used describe it was “sabotage”. As soon as the word descended from her lips I had an epiphany. She was right! I was sabotaging my days by making my mornings the barometer through which I gauged my entire day. In anticipation of a day that was ruined, my mind was already programmed in a negative way. Achieving something great that would have normally taken little effort now seemed impossible due to the bad start. I had successfully used my disappointment in a minuscule area as a crutch to hang my failures upon, and in one sweep robbed the other activities of my day from the positive energy that I would have normally given it.

Can you identify your Old Swede Road? How many times have your days, or life been thrown off by one event that was considered to be a failure? How many days that turned into weeks did you allow an argument to dictate your mood? Could your Old Swede Road be that childhood experience that left you grief-stricken, broken, lost, or abused? Is it the academic goals you failed to achieve before arriving at a certain age? Is it that goal weight that you have been working on since the birth of your first child who is passed the age to blame? Could it be the mistake you made as a wife, mother, sister or child that has left wounds that will last a lifetime? And are these events preventing you from living a wholesome life? Do you feel that because of these failures everything else in life deserves little or no effort?

As justifiable as it may seem in our human experience to make excuses for the outcome of our lives, based failures, hurt or disappointment encountered, there are lessons to be gleaned from the life of the prodigal son. The prodigal son chose failure. Though not all at once, his life was a downward spiral and every day the decisions he made sunk him lower. It seemed that he couldn’t get past the junction of his “Old Swede Road” when he entreated the father to give him his portion of the inheritance. I imagine that the day of that exchange kept playing like a broken record in his mind, and only when he stood at death’s door did he have the gumption to face that junction once more. His life my friend, provides a stark reminder that as humans we are going to do what humans do we fail. We fail to meet deadlines! We fail to attain our goals! We fail to say the right things to the ones we love! Let’s admit that we are all failures, but mercy says we don’t have to stay there! And we shouldn’t need a brush with death to awaken us either! Boldly come to the throne pleading for mercy to pardon you and grace to empower you to live a victorious life (Heb 4:16). The Father has His arms wide open and in His arms  we can lay down our burdens.

So you’ll be glad to know that Old Swede Road remains the same, but the difference is me. I don’t know about you but I am ready to forget the mistakes and failures of 2015. I am ready to walk into 2016 anticipating great things! I am not interested in sabotaging my progress by entertaining a negative mindset. I am ready to be “transformed by the renewing of my mind”, to bask in God’s bounteous love that extends beyond my mortal weaknesses. To walk in the positive and my Old Swede Road experience will no more prevent me from doing that, how about you?