October 13 Application | The Road to Stubbornville

By David Faust

You can’t find Stubbornville on a map, and your GPS won’t help you find it. You might not know the town exists, and yet, you may be traveling that direction without realizing it. 

Stubbornville is well-populated. Many travelers end up living there. You can tell if you’re getting close to town because your neck starts to stiffen up a bit. 

Some of Stubbornville’s residents have called it home almost since they were born. Others arrived in town later after their lives took some nasty twists and turns. 

Unpleasant Place 

If you settle down in Stubbornville, you will find it’s not a pleasant place to live. High fences separate neighbors from one another. The streets are one-way only, with odd names like Headstrong Highway, Rebellion Road, Contrary Court, Bitterness Boulevard, and Self-Willed Way. There are no Yield signs. (No one would obey them anyway.) The town has no public squares, but lots of public squabbles. No garages, plenty of grudges. Picnicking isn’t common there, but nitpicking is. Even the air smells bad—the stench of resentment, locals say. 

The town’s mayor, Lucifer Diabolos, has thrown his weight around for a long time. He relishes his evil legacy and tries desperately to cling to power. Over the years he has stirred up and presided over an endless array of small fights, big wars, bitter feuds, unamicable divorces, wrecked relationships, fractured friendships, church splits, and family separations. The mayor is proud of his work. 

Unyielding Will 

Stubbornville has a long and storied history. Some residents trace their city’s founding back to the Exodus, when Pharaoh hardened his heart against God. Others go back even further, pointing to the Tower of Babel and before that, the wickedness that filled the earth in the days of Noah. Still others contend Adam and Eve laid the town’s foundation when they disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden. Stubbornville’s residents have a lot in common with the hard-headed Israelites who rejected God’s prophets and the hard-hearted Pharisees who refused to accept Jesus as the Messiah.  

While Stubbornville’s past influence is indisputable, the town’s mayor also has a vision for future expansion. He wants to grow the Stubbornite population and expand the town’s borders. Even when God opens the heavens and pours out divine judgment on the earth, the mayor wants everyone to be like those described in Revelation 9:20-21, which says, “The rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood—idols that cannot see or hear or walk. Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts.” 

Why would anyone choose to live in a terrible place like Stubbornville? Why wouldn’t everyone turn to God when the world is falling apart? Why rebel against the Creator and try to replace him with created things? Why are we so tempted to substitute self-will for God’s will? Why would anyone ignore the faithful warnings of God’s prophets and apostles?    

That’s the way life goes in Stubbornville. The only way out of town is to reverse course and make a U-turn on the Road to Repentance. 

Personal Challenge: 

Are there areas of your life where you tend to be stubborn, self-willed, and rebellious toward the Lord? Confess your sin to God and say a prayer of surrender that says, “Not my will, but yours be done.”