Devil's Elbow

On our nostalgic trip down Route 66 on our vacation, the most interesting place we went through was Devil's Elbow, Missouri. We had lunch at an old roadhouse dating back to the 1930s, called Elbow Inn Bar & BBQ. It is one of the oldest establishments on Route 66 that is still in the same business, in the same location, although it was originally the Munger Moss Sandwich Shop. It still serves the delicious barbeque it has been famous for throughout the past eighty years.

There's a lot of history in Devil's Elbow. An old steel truss bridge still crosses the Big Piney River, Shelden's Market and Grocery still hosts the Post Office, and time still moves along slowly or not at all. The name, Devil's Elbow, came from a bad curve in the Big Piney River where logs would always jam going downstream. Lumberjacks thought it was put there by the devil himself to cause them all kinds of grief.

I'm intrigued by that name, Devil's Elbow. In fact, I feel like I know it. There's been many a time that I felt the nudge of the devil's elbow right before he whispered a lie in my ear. I'm sad to say that for much of my life I believed Satan's lies to be truth. It was eye-opening when I realized a few years ago how much of my life had been ruled by Satan's lies and negative thinking.

It's still a daily struggle for me. But I'm gaining the victory with Jesus' help, winning one battle at a time. And the way I'm winning those battles is by keeping my eyes focused on God's grace and keeping my mind focused on God's Word. Because the "Spirit who lives in (me) is greater than the spirit who lives in the world", I John 4:4. NLT