A WORD FOR TODAY, May 22, 2023
Peggy Hoppes
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Blessings. Peg
A WORD FOR TODAY, May 22, 2023
“Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will still live, even if he dies. Whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?’ She said to him, ‘Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Christ, God’s Son, he who comes into the world.’” John 11:25-27
Bruce and I went on an adventure last week. We drove to the panhandle of Texas and drove Route 66 into New Mexico. We covered 250 miles of the historic road, visiting all the fun and unusual landmarks along the way. We stayed in a couple motels, one of which has been in business since the earliest days of the Route. We ate in diners and visited museums. We hiked in some parks and looked at hundreds of antique cars.
The building of Route 66 began in 1926. It is 2448 miles and stretches from Chicago, Illinois to Santa Monica, California. It was one of the first federal highways and was built by connecting existing local, state, and national roads. It became a popular route because it was actively promoted by the U.S. 66 Highway Association. The traffic on Route 66 increased during the depression because people left their homes in search of better circumstances following the opportunities along the route. The road was used during WWII to move military troops and supplies from one station to another. Civilians used the road to go to the west coast in search of jobs in defense plants. After the war, automobile ownership grew dramatically and people began to have more leisure time, so the route became the path to vacations. The 50's and 60's were a boomtime for the route.
In an effort to make travel faster, the federal government began building the interstate highways in 1956, replacing Route 66 over the next three decades. Branded businesses located at the interchanges, so the travelers stopped visiting the small towns and the mom-and-pop restaurants, gas stations, and motels. Route 66 was decommissioned in 1985, and many small towns along the way became little more than ghost towns. We visited several towns that have survived, though even those towns have closed businesses that have been taken over by nature and graffiti.
You can’t drive every mile of Route 66 anymore, but we drove as much as we could. The interstate replaced many miles of the old road, but it still runs parallel in other places. Sometimes you can still see the concrete dotted with wild grasses, and in other places the road has become little more than dirt. As a matter of fact, the resources recommended avoiding several sections in times of rain because they are too muddy to drive. We drove through one of the ghost towns. We could see the shadow of a café, hotel, and several gas stations. There are no windows, the landscape is grassy and birds dwell in the old buildings. And somehow the taggers found these buildings and covered them with graffiti. Those businesses were the dream of someone who could not fight the modernization of their little corner of the world.
Seeing those old buildings made me think about the state of faith and the church today. It almost seems as if some superhighway of enlightenment or spirituality has left so much of what was the church behind. Research suggests Christianity is declining in the United States at rapid pace, and even those who claim faith and church attendance do not believe in the scripture or doctrines as they once did. Too many churches are closing, left to become shells like those old buildings along Route 66, covered in grasses and graffiti. Some of those buildings are being reused in ways that would shock Jesus and the apostles, taken over by the world.
Like those ghost towns we visited along our path, it seems like there is no hope for the future, but we have a God that does not give up. Jesus has promised resurrection to those who believe. We know that He is referring to the day we go home to our place in eternity in the presence of God, but He is also able to resurrect that which is dying in this world. He raised Lazarus, He can raise His Church to live another day. When we visited that ghost town on Route 66, we saw workers at one of the buildings. We don’t know what they plan to do; I doubt it will ever become a bustling town again, but someone has hope for that place. We might become discouraged when we see so many churches struggling, but with God there is always hope. He is able to bring life to the dead, we simply need to believe and trust in Him.
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