The "it" was the vehicle he imagined himself in as he headed down the road of life. The "keep it between the ditches" phrase was something his older brother had told him as he was teaching the guest preacher to drive...when both of them were young teenagers.
Look straight ahead, keep going, and keep it between the ditches. That was his advice to the congregation, as he encouraged us to be about the life-long task of pursuing social justice issues.
Good advice, that. Hard to pull off, that.
Wonder what it is that each of us is walking straight toward.
Whatever the prize that we have our eyes on up the road ahead, over there in the ditches to our right and left are some very scary things. So, look straight ahead, keep going, and keep it between the ditches.
Get off track and fall in a ditch and you may find yourself too satisfied with whatever distance you have already come. You may settle for the status quo. You just could get comfortable down in that cozy ditch. Shoot, you could just decided to call off the trek.
Some thoughts offered by others, wiser than me, come to mind:
~I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have changed several times since then. -Lewis Carroll
~God is right there in the thick of our day-by-day lives...trying to get messages through our blindness as we move around down here knee-deep in the fragrant muck and misery and marvel of the world. -Frederick Beuchner
~Journeying god, pitch your tent with mine so that I may not become deterred by hardship, strangeness, doubt. Show me the movement I must make toward a wealth not dependent on possessions, toward a wisdom not based on books, toward a strength not bolstered by might, toward a god not confined to heaven.
-portion of a traditional prayer song from Ghana
And this one, from Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
~Until you die...its all life.
Look straight ahead, keep going, and keep it between the ditches.
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