Brooks and Dunn Theology

"I was raised off of Rural Route Three,
Out where the blacktop ends.
We'd walk to Church on Sunday mornings,
Race barefoot back to Johnson's fence.
That's where I first saw Mary,
On that roadside pickin' blackberries.
That summer I turned a corner in my soul,
Down that red dirt road.

It's where I drank my first beer.
It's where I found Jesus.
Where I wrecked my first car:
I tore it all to pieces.
I learned the path to Heaven,
Is full of sinners an' believers.
Learned that happiness on earth,
Ain't just for high achievers.
I've learned; I've come to know,
There's life at both ends,
Of that red dirt road."

There's something I love about this song, even though it will inevitably make a good conservative girl squirm if she really thinks about it (uh, yeah, that would be me).

I've been trying to put my finger on it, what I "like" about the heart of this song. I grew up under legalism, so many taboos, so much self righteousness and yet so much hypocrisy. It's the last kind of christian life I want to lead.

I grew up on red dirt roads and still live on one now, and wouldn't change that for the world, even when the red is frozen and drifted over to the point of my being helplessly confined to my farmyard as I am today (the nicely plowed road in the picture is from after *last* years blizzard).

Drinking beer was definitely a mortal sin in my upbringing, not that I care, I think the stuff is pretty disgusting anyway, but I married an Italian who was raised on beer with pizza and wine with pasta from the earliest age and his home was nearly more conservative than mine, if possible.... that's Italian culture for ya.

Anyway, despite not liking the taste of most any alcoholic beverage I refuse to turn that subject into a rule of righteousness. You can be a very reverent and wonderful christian by never touching a drop and you can be a very reverent and wonderful christian even if you do... I believe. (should I be fearing a lightning bolt as this point?).

This song makes me think, and I like that. The kind of upbringing I had pretended that the path to heaven was only full of believers, and ones who followed all the rules (even man made ones) at that. But the truth I have come to learn is that we are ALL sinners, some of us are believers, but we are still sinners. The only righteous person on this road is the one who walked before us, and HE is our righteousness. I love that. It makes me love Him so much and realize that He is SO amazing. So wonderful. This realization, that He loves me, He wants to walk this red dirt road with me, that is true happiness on earth and it is not because of my achievements, but His.

Sometimes I find sermons in the strangest places :D Here`s to red dirt roads, sinners and saints and the One who saves us.