Gravity Hill

"Gravity Hill" is a secret whispered, discovered and proven for generations. The mystery is never fully explained, only experienced. Park your car in neutral on Putney Road right outside of Arcadia, MI, facing frontwards or backwards -- doesn’t matter -- then gravity pulls you uphill. Really. It’s the Putney Road Phenomenon. Four generations of our family have been awed by this tried and true transport. You just go to the bottom of the hill, put your car in park and while you sit there watching the road incline upwards, your car is pulled up in neutral.

I know -- it’s weird and thrilling, fun for everybody who visits, to witness and write home about. People leave shaking their heads. It’s tough to explain, except for my dad, a civil engineer, who would quietly explain after people had fun with it that it’s just an optical illusion. He knew people wouldn’t believe him. The car was pulled uphill, after all! He seldom mentioned that his level proved his point. He was content to know the truth and let people have fun with the fiction. As the saying goes, he knew “which hill to die on!”

Off Putney Road, I can have fun with fiction and ignore the truth about the stacks of stuff overtaking my area of the basement or the porky pounds accumulating to help me bulk up for winter. I can fool myself with mirrors that start at the neck and by avoiding the basement. But at some point I have to face it, or face the consequences. Even my access to some of the best minds and guests on the globe through the Woman to Woman® show doesn’t put me on auto-pilot for good habits.

Occasionally there is sweet victory. I change best when I level with myself and take inventory of where I’m living an illusion compared to the truth of God’s Word, which is like the level my dad put on Putney Road. When life’s journey gets bumpy and feels like an uphill climb, you might ask God to put down His level to show you the Truth so you can find the Way. Jesus said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." (John 14:6) Great place to start, whether it’s uphill or not!