Don’t Mess With It!

As I was reading through random news articles yesterday I discovered this one. There's just something about it that stood out in my mind.

In Los Angeles there is a freeway known by several names. It's called the Arroyo Seco Parkway. It's also goes by the name Pasadena Freeway. Others simply call it "the 110". According to an Associated Press article I was reading about the road, it is the oldest "freeway" in the west. In fact, it is said that this particular road was the one that inspired the concept of a "freeway" because of how its design allowed traffic to flow in a freer, faster, and more efficient way.

Today the 110 is one of the busiest, but most beautiful drives in the United States. The eight mile stretch of highway links downtown Los Angeles to Pasadena. It features "lush embankments", tunnels, city views, as well as many other design aesthetics that make it a unique historical roadway. It truly is unique.

Why go to all the trouble to describe this freeway? Well, now some people want to change it.

As I was reading this article I found out that there are plans to "improve" this highway by building concrete walls along a six mile stretch of the roadway. These barriers will be decorated to look like stone. Also in the plans are new streetlamps modeled after older streetlamps that are supposed to improve roadway lighting at night. All of these things are supposed to make the road safer and easier to maintain, but at a cost.

Well, there are actually preservationists crying foul about this project. One "community activist" by the name of Martha Benedict asked this:

"Why was the style of the original lamps not respected or preserved? Why does it have to be some phony thing?"

There are people who are genuinely concerned about the preservation of this roadway! They want it to retain the same character and look that it had in "the old days". It's interesting to me sometimes what people choose to get worked up about. While I certainly admire the spirit, in the grand scheme of things it's ultimately still just a road. While it is an admirable thing to do (as I do like to see historical sites preserved in reasonable ways) many people tend to forget which direction they really need to be looking: Up (see Colossians 3:2).

While I do not know them, I wonder if they would take the same approach when it comes to religion. Why don't they get worked up about preserving, or restoring Christianity to the original intent? Instead of doing what others perceive to be "improvements" or instituting "phony things" into worship, why don't more people want to go back to the simple beauty contained in God's original design? I guess it all comes down to priorities (cf. Matthew 6:33).

"Thus says the LORD: "Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your soul. But they said, 'We will not walk in it.'" (Jeremiah 6:16 ESV)