Hurt Road: A 7-Day Devotional By Third Day Guitarist Mark LeeSample

Walking Hurt Road

How many times, when asked how we’re doing, do we suggest that life is the best it’s ever been? We’ve had a rough patch, but now we’re better than ever. Or at the very least, no matter what’s going on, we tell people we’re OK. 

Inside us, something else is going on. “OK” is a form of wishful thinking. We think, If I can get through this hard time, then I’m going to hit smooth sailing, and everything is going to be OK. All of us are trying to get to a place where everything’s worked out and everything’s easy. We’re on the road to happily ever after, aren’t we? But it just doesn’t work that way. 

In The Road Less Traveled, M. Scott Peck says our core problem is that we expect life to be easy. When life isn’t easy, we don’t chalk it up to the fact that maybe life is harder than we thought. Instead, we look for someone or something to blame.

When I look back on my life, I can see that it’s not happily ever after. It has never been easy. I have been dealt some rough blows. Accidents, injuries, losing a parent to cancer. While your road hasn’t been the same, I’m sure it’s had tough stretches as well. The road we’re on includes sickness, job loss, tragedy, and death. 

Even when we get where we’re trying to go, it’s rarely what we thought it would be. Surprisingly, success can be a trial in itself. The whirlwind created when we get busy doing something we love can make for a rocky journey that’s tough to navigate.

Each of us has a unique story, but together we’re all on what I call Hurt Road. We make our plans for how our lives are going to go forward, and the next thing we know we’re landing in a ditch we didn’t see coming. But we get up and we keep moving. The beauty comes because we’re not walking alone. We can help each other and we can support each other. And, coming or going, God’s got us. 

How would you describe the terrain of your life so far? Mostly smooth with a few bumps? Rocky all the way? Why do you think we’re tempted to say everything is fine when it’s not?

Hurt Road by Mark Lee is available now. Read chapter one here. Order here.