Preparing a Road for the Lord

Published December 17, 2011 |

A voice cries out, “Prepare in the wilderness a road for the Lord! Clear the way in the desert for our God! Fill every valley; level every mountain.” Isaiah 40:3-4

When urging people to prepare themselves for the Lord’s coming, John the Baptist quoted this passage from Isaiah. How can we clear the way in the desert of our hearts for the loving Prince of Peace? Isaiah tells us to fill every valley and level every mountain.

What are the valleys within ourselves that need to be filled in—in other words, built up? For some of us, the low places may be actual depression. We owe it to ourselves to seek the physical and psychological treatment and spiritual sustenance that can lift an oppressive sense of hopelessness. Some of our valleys might be a tendency toward negativity, a critical nature that we’ve developed in the misguided hope that it would ward off disappointment. Maybe it’s an underlying voice in our heads that tells us we’re nobodies, we’re not good enough. Maybe its fear. Or an emptiness that we’ve tried to fill with the shifting sand of more things, external approval, busy-ness.

On the other hand, we may need to trim down mountains of pride, places within us where we are swollen with a sense of our own importance, arrogance, or self-centeredness. It might be a relentless focus on our own goals to the exclusion of the needs of others, or mental blinders to the big picture and what God may be calling us to do. It might be self-righteous judgment of others from our imagined mountaintops of intellectual or spiritual superiority.

The landscape of each heart is unique. We are the only ones who can discern what roadblocks stand between our deepest selves and the coming of the Lord. Let’s take some time today to see what those roadblocks are and how, with God’s help, we can clear the path.

Prayer: Holy Spirit, help me clear the pathway to my heart.

Reflection for Sharing: What mountains within you need to be leveled? What valleys need to be built up? What can you do today to begin to address the bumps in your spiritual path?

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Meditations

But Jesus answered “The scripture says, ‘Human beings cannot live on bread alone, but need every word that God speaks.’” (Matthew 4:4)

All Bible quotes are from the Good News Translation unless otherwise noted.

It is reassuring that Jesus called fishermen and tax collectors to be his followers. These were laymen, not Scripture experts. It is wise to seek guidance from religious scholars and clergy who have studied Scripture to avoid errors in interpretation. But the Bible is also a gift given to each of us, to use as a basis for prayer and meditation.

I’m not a Biblical scholar; I’m an expert only on my own experience. Following the Scripture passage is a brief meditation along with a question or two as a springboard for your own reflections. Please feel free to share your own thoughts or insights on the passage by adding a comment. All comments are moderated, so please allow some time for your comment to be posted.