Muddy Roads

I live on a short dead end gravel road that is connected to another short gravel road. Winters in Michigan are the best time to live on such a road. Not that it being the last road in the county to be plowed is all that helpful, but usually the road is smooth and dust free for most of winter. You learn to drive on the ice that is formed from the tire compacted snow.
It even can be a fun drive.

For whatever reason, we have had a warm spell and my short dead end gravel road very quickly has become a pot-hole infested swamp that stretches for many miles. Now, the once pleasurable driving experience has changed into a dangerous undertaking designed to protect your spine and the life of your car, at all costs. As you weave through the streets to avoid the pitfalls it must seem like a weird kind of dance to the casual observer or the soaring bird.
It is no longer a fun drive.

One day your driving along just fine, coasting if you will, and the next you can’t seem to avoid the muddy traps. Sounds all too familiar in my life.
What changes from one day to the next? Where did I deviate? I’m still me and the last I knew God was still on His throne, so not that much is dissimilar.
On the other hand if a few degrees can make such a huge difference in my road, what are the “degrees” in my life that causes me to change?
Is it as simple as the way I think?
Why is my thinking so different from one day to the next?
Am I alone in this plodding along through a muddy existence where little satisfies?

“…let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus.”