Tunnels

This summer we enjoyed some weeks of travel in Norway. The country in northern Europe occupies the western half of the Scandinavian peninsula. The rugged coastline is marked by steep fjords and rocky cliffs and measures (in a straight line without following the actual coastline) about 2,650 kilometers (1,650 miles) in length. We traveled by car and arrived in Norway by ferry. Driving in Norway—especially closer to the coast—means driving through many tunnels. There are more than 1,000 tunnels.[1] The longest one is more than 24 kilometers (nearly 15 miles). We went through the third-longest one, the Gudvanga tunnel, covering 11.4 kilometers (7 miles) underground.

Riding for a long time through a tunnel can be quite unnerving. Once the daylight has faded, only the car’s headlights and some flimsy lights fastened to the ceiling of the tunnel help with visibility. Many of the tunnels we drove through had curves and required reducing speed and paying careful attention—especially when facing oncoming traffic. In one tunnel we had to find our way through several traffic circles with other tunnels leading to the left or to the right. Most tunnels in Norway have a sign with the tunnel’s name and its length at their entrance. Yet 24 kilometers (15 miles) in the dark turns out to be rather long.

Darkness and Tunnel Vision

We often speak of “tunnel vision” when we experience difficulties and challenges that defy a quick solution. We are focused exclusively on the problem and cannot see anything on both sides of our vision. This experience of tunnel vision can be both personal and communal. Why does cancer hit my partner now, even though we have lived a healthy lifestyle? How can I help my child experiencing depression and anxiety? Will we make it financially without the income of the job that I just lost? These and similar questions pop up in the lives of most of us and defy quick answers. Sometimes it feels as if we are hurtling through the tunnel, hoping to avoid crashing into the walls or the oncoming traffic. Sometimes we struggle to see any change, and it feels as if we have stopped right in the middle of the dark tunnel, with no light pointing the way.

Tunnel vision can be debilitating and rob us of the wide-open spaces, blotting out all the light of hope and keeping us fixated on the perceived problem.

Tunnel vision, however, is not only a personal experience. Churches and faith communities can find themselves right in the middle of a tunnel and may fail to see the way forward. How will we be able to pay for our building with a decreasing number of aging members? Why don’t we grow here in our community? How can we keep the next generation engaged and in church?

Tunnel vision can be debilitating and rob us of the wide-open spaces, blotting out all the light of hope and keeping us fixated on the perceived problem while effectively ignoring all the signs of God’s love and involvement in our lives, communities, and churches.

Focused and Ready

There is another kind of tunnel vision that does the opposite. Great athletes look for this focus tunnel moment. Standing behind the starting line of the race, the athlete tries to become really quiet and focused. The deafening roar coming from the spectator stands fades out. The athlete stops looking at the other competitors around him. His ear blends out everything but the starting gun. And then he springs away, through the focus tunnel, eyes fixed on the finish line. This is how the impossible is done. This is how world records are broken.

Paul seemed to know something of the secret to breaking out of dark tunnels and finding the focus tunnel moment. “I deliberately kept it plain and simple: first Jesus and who he is; then Jesus and what he did—Jesus crucified,” he writes in 1 Corinthians 2:2 (Message).[2] Hebrews 12:1, 2 puts it this way: “Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we’d better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God” (Message).

This is how we come out of dark tunnels. This is how the impossible becomes possible.

[1] Norway boasts more than 1,000 tunnels. The Cycletourer website, helping cyclists to prepare for riding on Norway’s picturesque roads, has a total 1,262 marked on their map. See https://www.cycletourer.co.uk/maps/tunnelmap.shtml for the details.

[2] Texts credited to Message are from The Message, copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress, represented by Tyndale House Publishers, a division of Tyndale House Ministries. All rights reserved.