The hill leading out of Clearwater on Clearwater Valley Road has been know as the “Barney board” for as long as I can remember. I have no idea just how such an unusual name came to be attached to the hill. Perhaps it was another term for a “washboard road”. For younger readers that term likely means nothing, but those of us who have rattled around dirt and gravel roads are well aware of those corrugated spots that reminded us of an old fashioned washboard.
Washboards develop as traffic pounds over gravel roads, alternating gaining and loosing traction. What started out as a graded smooth surface turns into a bone chattering obstacle course. Many a car or truck has bounced off a road because of a combination of washboard road and speed.
Our lives often go through a similar process. Everything goes smoothly for a while, and then slowly but surely life gets rougher and rougher. As a minister, I have often tried to help people who have lives marked by one bumpy spot after another.
A young friend of ours has lost immediate family members, had seriously ill children and is dealing with cancer. Her road is very rough, but she remembers her grandmother telling her, “God never gives us more trial than we can bear”.
I find myself bewildered by what she is going through. Her questions haunt me.
She questions God’s very existence. I can understand Christian hope for a future that blesses her. That is easy for me to talk about, but yet she struggles. The road is too rough right now. Yet, there is hope.
What can we do when our life becomes so rough that we feel like we are going to bounce right out of it? I’m partial to the encouragement given by the Bible in 1 Peter 5:6-7, “... humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.”
– Lloyd Strickland