35 miles.
That’s it.
People say the Yungas Road in Bolivia is the scariest and deadliest stretch of road on the planet. This winding ribbon of dirt, rock, asphalt and mud is located high up in the mountains of the Bolivian rainforest. My brother who lived there for six years said the locals call this road “Camino de la Muerte” – the road of death. In 2006, 300 people perished as their vehicles slid off the side of mountains, while some of the drivers lost their vision in a quick forming fog and hurdled past the hairpin turns of 2,000-foot cliffs, and others got crushed under falling rocks that were impossible to avoid.
It is such a dangerous highway that the most daring of thrill seekers and mountain bikers are drawn to it – – often to their own peril. 18 cyclists have died on the death road in the last decade believing they could conquer the steep downhill grades and wet muddy trails.
But surprisingly, this road is not the most treacherous and deadly road known to man. There is one more. And you want to know the strangest part of all?
It is only 18 inches long. You heard me right, 18 inches.
This is the road that connects the human heart to the head; it is far more treacherous and deadly than any other road known to man. And because of the real danger of death to self when you travel this road, most people refuse to take it. In Titus 3:8 Paul tells the reader to be “careful to devote yourselves to good works”. In other words, what you believe about God should compel the believer to let what is in the head affect the heart. But because of sinful complacency and fear, this road is avoided by most. True thrill seekers in the Christian church are a rare find because the cost of travel from the head to the heart is high. People prefer to live in the safety of their head without letting the road of devotion lead them to the heart.
The comfort of lazy argument and speculation is easy and soft.
It takes almost no courage at all to think without demanding action. Ideas, concepts, theories and philosophies are wonderful mental toys to play with. Sitting on a couch with a book, or even a Bible, and letting the images, arguments and ideas spark the synapses of your brain can be exhilarating. But if all you do is close the book, or end an invigorating spiritual conversation without letting these ideas lead you to your heart, you are already dead. You are nothing more than a lonely hermit lost in your world of words.
James 1:22-26 warns against this:
“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.”
Devotion requires you to really consider the truth. Living truth forms convictions. And it is conviction that leads a person down this road to action. Otherwise, if all you do is live in your thoughts, all you have are words, light and airy words. You are a mist that appears for a while and then fades away.
This is where the Biblical concept of confession comes in. It means that after I have learned something, I agree with it – – not just intellectually, but emotionally and willfully. Agreement means you will risk traveling down the road from your head to your heart. So if I read in God’s word that it is good to give to others out of my excess and I see someone with want and I don’t do anything, then I really don’t believe what I have confessed. I am nothing more than a lonely hermit dwelling only in my thoughts, my heart is not connected. All because it is so easy not to travel down this road!
The practice of meditation allows the thought to travel to the heart. Prayer is like the blood that gives the mediation life, and action is what transforms concept to reality. “Husbands, love your wives.’ Meditate on it. “Love them as Christ loved the church and died for it.” Let that sink in. Pray that it will be true of you. And then when she burns the roast or spends too much from your budget, after being saturated by meditation your heart should naturally respond in “patience, kindness, keeping no record of wrongs, self-control.” This is how your head begins to connect with the heart. This is the road where life flows.
Wives, confession means “I respect” my man. I build him up and believe in him. You can read that and agree, but if it doesn’t travel down the road to your heart it is only a game of words. How many wives these days sing in church, cry over a beautiful song on the radio, but yell, complain, demand and belittle their man in the daily grind of life? Does not respect include “kindness”? You must travel those all important 18 inches!
This is the road that is less traveled, the head to the heart. Because it is deadly. It is actually deadly both ways: if you decide to take it or decide not to take it. You will die slowly and eternally if all you do is live in your head. But if you dare travel down this road, allowing truth to lead you to your heart, your flesh will be forced to die. That is what meditation does, it causes your pride to slide off the road, or the boulders of truth to crush your sick desire to always have things go your way. But this is the death that leads to new life. Strange, I know. So we will die either way.
18 inches. That’s it.
Drive down it, and be prepared to die in order to finally live.
