New Words

I recently heard a new word. Now, I don’t generally like new words – most of the old ones seem to work pretty well and the majority of the new ones that crop up seem to be there simply to replace the old ones because people are bored with them. I contend that if we took the time to understand the words we use, most of them are more than adequate to the task. But I digress.

The word is roadbuzz. Yeah, my spell check just brought it up as an unknown word! I heard it used in the context of describing someone who had just spent a long time in rush hour traffic on a Friday evening, attempting to escape from the city to the country. Roadbuzz.

I immediately thought, “I know about that!” You see, Johanna and I have just spent 52 days – that’s 7 ½ weeks – travelling. We arrived in the States at the end of June 2007. We spent the first two weeks settling in and then left on the longest road trip we have ever done, leaving our base in West Virginia, travelling all the way to Los Angeles, then north up the West Coast of America, to Vancouver, Canada. From there we headed back east travelling as far as Winnipeg, Manitoba, then turned south to return to our little cottage in the oak forest in West Virginia. If you’re keeping tabs, that’s 8,838 miles (14,223 kilometres)! It is also 16 states of the USA and 5 provinces in Canada and 20 different beds in which we slept! And I drove it all! I know roadbuzz!

Roadbuzz: that feeling you have at the end of six or eight hours of driving, when you pull up to your destination for the day and have to painfully lift each leg out of the car seat to get moving again. And then you walk stiffly up to the hotel counter or the door of some house, all the time thinking, “Boy, I’m glad that’s over! The sooner I get to bed and get some rest, the better I’ll be.”

How about the roadbuzz of life? We all have days when we haven’t necessarily been travelling but we sometimes feel just about the same way at the end of the day! Right? How do we get over the roadbuzz of life?

I’ve begun reading Traveling Light by Eugene Peterson. In it he is exploring the concept of freedom as it is expounded by the Apostle Paul in his Letter to the Galatians. His primary thesis is that true freedom can only by found through faith in Jesus as the Saviour sent by God into the world. And it is only this true freedom that, I believe, can enable us to deal with the roadbuzz of life. A good night’s rest isn’t going to do it! Peterson sums up the reality of life in this way: “We are born into a world that shows everywhere the signs of some great primordial catastrophe. There are vast beauties and breathtaking virtues in this present age, but nothing pristine. The sign of our birth is a scar. The world into which we are born is dangerous. The parents to whom we are born are flawed. The governments under which we live are corrupt. Are we free to live? Or are we only allowed a meagre energy and a compromised space to cope?” The roadbuzz of life!

Jesus said: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Rivers of living water will brim and spill out of the depths of anyone who believes in me this way …” In this way means believing that He really is Who He said He is: God come into this world so that we could truly live, truly be free; so that we would not be subject to the roadbuzz of life. Why don’t you ask Him about today? He’ll hear you if you do and He WILL respond. Just be listening for Him. He has new words for us that don't just replace old ones simply because we don't like them anymore! And His new words will help us live life free of roadbuzz!

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