On a recent trip to visit our daughter, Kathleen, Pat and I decided to “kidnap” her for a day and head for the Smoky Mountains. We left her home in northern Georgia and drove the back roads through some familiar places. These were the very roads we’d traveled together with all our children when they still lived at home.

We drove along the Ocoee River where members of our family used to ride the rafts on the whitewater. There beside us flowed the lovely Nantahala River where kayak events took place during the Atlanta Olympic Games.

Ducktown, NC was the center of a large open-pit copper mining operation. We found a great Chinese restaurant tucked away in the hills, quite a few miles from just about nowhere!

We slid through the Cherokee Indian Reservation and tackled the thirty mile up and down to Gatlinburg. As we neared the top at Newfound Gap, we actually got to see piles of snow on the ground. Yep, snowballs were thrown by nearly all!

It didn’t take us long to “do” Gatlinburg. We’d “been there, done that” many times over the years. There were lots of people walking the sidewalks; the candy shops were still turning out the dentists’ best friend – homemade taffy!

As we headed for home, we took another back road past the campground where we’d pitched our tent and parked our 5th Wheel over the past twenty-five years. As we headed past Pittman Center, we came upon a most fascinating structure. There, in the beautiful setting of my favorite hills, was a bridge. Now, don’t get me wrong. I love bridges. I’ve been across just about all of the major bridges in the United States. But there, stretched across the East Fork of the Little Pigeon River, nestled amongst the hills and trees, was a brand new, beautiful bridge.

One of the consistent feature of bridges, is that they allow people to get from one place to another. They often cross ravines, bays, straits, chasms, and creeks. Well, traveling across this particular bridge required a left turn off the rather narrow, twisting road upon which we were driving. However, the bridge ended smack up against the side of a rather steep mountain! Here was a bridge to nowhere!

Pat, Kathi, and I mused about this bridge for quite awhile. Upon further thought, I’m convinced that eventually, contractors will take heavy equipment across that bridge and cut most of the mountain away. New homes of various shapes and sizes will spring up along new roads. Progress? I’m not so sure.

The more I’ve considered this strange bridge, the more I believe I’ve found some Biblical parallels. There are a lot of psychological terms in the average person’s vocabulary. We glibly throw around words like co-dependent, enabler, facilitator. Many of us are like the white knights of King Arthur’s time. We see every troubled person or difficult situation as a “damsel in distress” who needs rescuing.

Have you ever considered the possibility that there’s a time to cut your losses and move on to other people and other circumstances? Jesus stated in Mark 6:11, “And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave, as a testimony against them.” It appears, according to Jesus’ own words, that there would be places, people, and circumstances that would simply drain away all our energies and resources and to no avail.

In Matthew 19:16-22, we read the story of young man whom we often refer to as The Rich Young Ruler. He wanted to go to Heaven! After hearing Jesus’ complete terms, verse 22 tells us that “he went away sad, because he had great wealth.”Jesus could have chased him down the road, constantly lowering the standards for salvation that He’d stated. He could have, in a sense, conducted a K-Mart style blue light special on salvation. Jesus didn’t do that. He watched the young man walk away. I believe Jesus sorrowed, too. Many of us would spend days, weeks, months, perhaps, plowing endless resources into this young man’s life, determined to eventually win him over.

Proverbs 29:1 states that, “A man who remains stiff-necked after many rebukes will suddenly be destroyed – without remedy.” Is there a point past which even God will not go in dealing with people? It seems that this possibility does exist. It was said of Jesus that the common people heard him gladly. He devoted most of His time and energy toward reaching those who would respond.

Am I saying that we should easily give up on someone with whom we’re working? Am I saying that we should cut and run from a difficult and challenging job or ministry or marriage or whatever? No! I am saying that it would be well for us to seek the Lord and ask Him to guide us about where we can best invest our time, energy, and resources. He does know the end from the beginning. He is able to lead us in these matters.

What’s the alternative? Continually building bridges to nowhere! We may be bulldoggedly pursuing certain individuals simply because we just can’t give up and admit what to us appears to be defeat.

I believe that we should regularly inquire of the Lord about the very best use of the tools of our lives. If He encourages us to continue in our present pursuits, then endure we must. If, however, He leads us to shake the dust off our feet and move on to more fertile, productive fields, we must also be willing to obey.

If you’d like to comment on “The Bridge to Nowhere”, please drop me an E-mail. I’ll get back to you promptly! Also, thanks to the whole bunches of folks who E-mailed me pictures of their grandchildren after I shared a picture of our newest. None of you claimed your grandchild was more beautiful, but most of you claimed that yours was “just as beautiful”. Thanks for the good- natured flavor of your mail! It was fun sharing

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