Get Your Kicks on Route 66

Asphalt – #4 in a series on Lessons from Things that make up Nature

This series has covered water (rain on a windshield) … air (smoke from Canada) … plants (Virginia Creeper vines on the trail). Today, I am intrigued about a substance that is more man made, but made up by particles of nature – Asphalt Concrete.

Here is Wiki’s first paragraph …

Asphalt concrete or asphaltic concrete (commonly called asphalt,^[1] blacktop, or pavement in North America, and tarmac, bitmac or bitumen macadam in the United Kingdom and Ireland) is a composite material commonly used to surface roads, parking lots, airports, and the core of embankment dams.^[2] Asphalt mixtures have been used in pavement construction since the nineteenth century.^[3] It consists of mineral aggregate bound together with bitumen (a substance also independently known as asphalt, pitch, or tar), laid in layers, and compacted.

That’s a word salad to me. To me – roads. More specifically, asphalt is that which makes the roads on which I drive.

I am planning a major road trip in about 40 days … 6000 plus miles, over 100 hours in the car, 19 states … 7 National Parks, Multiple Bucket list items, and 2 wonderful weeks with my wife. (If she comes back alone, you will find my body somewhere on the side of the road … and I will have completely deserved it.) And also, even though the title says Route 66. We will not be hitting that this time.

I have put spent of time online with reservations, web searches, YouTube clips, and looking at the best itinerary through those 19 states.

It would not be possible without asphalt. I appreciate the aggregates, the bitumen, the tar, and so much more that make up asphalt. My tires (which may be new by then) will carry me on along the path on which asphalt has been laid.

I’ve listened to great songs …
– Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
– On the Road Again
– Take It Easy
– Running on Empty
– Hit the Road Jack
((Leave a comment on your fav “Road Song”))

Roads. We need them. They annoy us with holes, cracks, bumps, and more. They seem to forever be in repair, and I appreciate Google Maps showing us a way to avoid road work!

So I thought about the road and I realize there are some great lessons on life here too …

• Before the asphalt is laid, preparation has to be done … you don’t just jump in and do things. The Bible says to count the cost (in building a barn, in going to war, etc.) … so a lot has to go into a project before the project has to begin.
• Before the asphalt is laid, preparation has to be done … A plan/path has to be done in our decisions. Know where you’re going before you head out. Did you know they specifically make interstates weave and avoid long straight sections to help keep drivers alert.
• Before the asphalt is laid, preparation has to be done … some of the great work of God is done below the surface. A solid base prevents future problems.
• Asphalt is worthless with out Heavy Pressure … Heavy rollers roll across the road, and without that, the road will wear out quickly and not last. Sometimes we have to go through pressure in life to prepare us (Think of Moses and the 40 years in the wilderness herding sheep to prepare him for the 40 years in the wilderness to herd the people of God.) This is also true to heat. Asphalt has to be heated before it can be shaped. We too have to be tested and purified by fire.

• Asphalt can have major issues that began from small cracks … to use the words of the great theologian, we need to “Nip it, Nip it in the Bud!” Of course I am talking the scholar Barney Fife. Handling small fissures early in will prevent future pot holes.
• Maintenance is not only suggested, it is required … like the roadways everywhere, our lives too need maintenance. So daily walk with God, stay attached, abide in the Word, don’t forsake the assembly.
• Asphalt makes up the road, but the road is not the destiny, it the path to somewhere … We are to let our light shine to glorify God. That is our purpose. Glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

So, don’t just passover the asphalt in our lives. Appreciate the lessons it teaches us.

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Don’t forget to put your favorite road song in the comments.