What is spooey? Well, technically it isn’t anything. It’s actually how you pronounce the acronym SPUI which stands for “Single Point Urban Interchange”. In short, it’s a great big intersection for a great big highway. Where I live, we have a single red blinking light that signals a four way stop at the busiest intersection in town. A spooey would, in fact, freak me out.
A spooey works by passing all traffic through a single set of lights and allows for concurrent left turns thus increasing the capacity of the interchange. Got it? Well, a really smart engineer does, but I don’t. However, it got me thinking. Roads and paths are a metaphor that is used so powerfully in scripture. The road we travel is not to be taken lightly, but rather should be walked deliberately. However, I find myself on several roads. Each road seems to pull at me, want to divert me from the destination; and let’s face it, it only takes one wrong turn to end up going the wrong direction or in the middle of a wreck. That’s where the spooey guide comes in.
No matter how many roads we travel, all of them must be passing through the same signal; Jesus Christ. It isn’t easy, so many times I don’t pass EVERY road I’m on through the signal. I have no problem taking Spiritual Street through Jesus. Most of the time, Parent Parkway and Marriage Avenue are no problem either, although there are times when I have to “catch up” Jesus with the latest in our world. Those roads, however, are certainly not the sum of the roads I travel. My life is complex and involves many different roads, or roles, both publicly and privately. It’s only when I begin to live my life, all of my life, for God and not for me and realize I’m ON the road, not the road BUILDER that my life begins to have purpose. I must die to my own selfishness and my own foolishness and allow God complete control.
Paul wrote:
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Galatians 2:20
What does this say about the areas of life that I’m not happy with? If I am completely dead to my self and live only to God, is it possible to be dissatisfied? Is my frustration with my situation born from selfish desires? I don’t think we have to love the road that God put us on all the time, but when I begin to behave that my road is precisely where God needs me, then I can begin to look around and see what it is that He wants me to do on that road. That is passing all roads through Jesus and using the spooey guide.
What roads are you not passing through the signal? How can I help?
