Road Builder

Prepare the way for the people. Build up, build up the highway! Remove the stones. Raise a banner for the nations. The Lord has made proclamation to the ends of the earth: “Say to Daughter Zion, ’See, your Savior comes! See, his reward is with him, and his recompense accompanies him.’” 

Isaiah 62:10-11

Roads transform nations.

I have lived in countries with little more than sandy ruts between tiny villages, and others with elaborate highway systems connecting glittering cities. Roads change the world and how we live in it. 

In many cases, the ones who built the roads we enjoy were hired laborers, people of small status yet great strength. We don’t think much about them as we speed along in our cars, enjoying the benefit of their backbreaking labor.

But the purpose of road-building is not that the builders might be remembered. The purpose is to create a passageway for all. To change nations. To transform the world and how we live in it.

For many followers of Jesus, this means we are to prepare the way for the people, to remove the stones and raise a billboard for the nations. You see, the Savior is coming to the ends of the earth! And he has given us a job to do.

I am a road builder. Small in status but great in the strength of my God. The purpose of my road building is not so I will be remembered. My sole purpose is to lay a firm foundation, a smooth passageway for others to the glory of God.

I experienced a flash of fulfillment recently as I had the honor of sitting under the teaching of two sisters from Iran who escaped persecution. They were trained as psychologists in their homeland. But they have had to clean public toilets and work at gas stations on their journey of displacement, as they sought refuge in new nations. Today they are teaching the persecuted about trauma care through the lenses of their honor-shame worldview.

We embraced and wept together, aware of the high privilege of being joined in the work of Jesus, one a road builder, the other two master drivers on the road to their people.

What are you called to build? Look around you today, Church. Cast your eyes to and fro upon the earth and see the persecuted. They are no longer in distant lands, their stories occasionally smuggled out by brave missionaries and humanitarians. They are in your schools studying with your children. They are in the grocery store. In your city, your state, your province.

The #persecuted are flooding the nations and we have an unsurpassed opportunity to build up the highway that they may find passage. Come be a road builder. Click To Tweet

God is raising up pastors, teachers, apostles, and missionaries among the persecuted today. They need a reliable band of strong laborers to lay down the pavement and make a way for them to go out and declare the Truth that sets their people free.

How can you and I help?

You do not have to be a writer, a teacher, or a pastor to be a road builder. God’s pattern is to use what we bring Him to build His Church. Each can bring what she or he has. God will transform our offerings. He will find a place in the pavement for your gift and mine, an exact fit. 

And occasionally on this side of heaven, we may have the barely containable experience of extreme joy when we encounter someone who is benefitting from the road we have helped in some small way to build.

Take a moment of stillness now and ask Jesus to show you what you have to bring to the highway. Then pray this prayer:

Lord, I bring this gift to you. Use me to build up the highway for the nations, for your Church. Amen.

@audreycfrank