Following the GPS can sometimes be a risk. Have you ever had your GPS take you down a road that probably shouldn’t even exist? The road is so narrow you’d have to pull over if you were to meet someone coming the opposite direction. The road is not straight but all sorts of curvy and winding every which way. To top it all off the road isn’t even paved! It is a dirt road! At this point, I want to chuck the GPS out the window and tell it to find its own way home!
As I was reading a passage in Isaiah, I started thinking about roads, specifically interstates and dirt roads. Then I started thinking about the figurative roads of life. In Matthew 7:13-14 it talks about these figurative roads, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” 37 million people travel the interstates every year. That is 101,370 people per day that are driving on the interstate. That is a lot of people! Now, I wasn’t able find a number of people who drive dirt roads every day. I mean who is actually going to track that? No one really cares.
Dirt roads can be difficult to drive on especially when you first start learning to drive. I grew up in the country and learned to drive on dirt roads. That didn’t mean that I was an expert at driving on dirt roads by any means. There were times when I drove too fast and started to lose control of the vehicle. There were times when the road was muddy after a rain, I didn’t heed my mother’s advice (can you guess what happens next?), and ended up getting my car stuck in the mud. I ended up having to have my grandpa come and tow me out of the mud. Depsite all of this, dirt roads are their own kind of adventure. They often free you from the overly busy interstates.
Interstates, on the other hand, are spacious and nicely paved for the most part (*cough cough* Oklahoma). They provide us with a means to get to where we are going much faster than before. They conveniently provide you with stops along the way for food, gas, and a potty break. Yet, they don’t come free. In most states there ends up being a toll somewhere along the way. Often times in life, we seek to take the easier road, the road with less opposition, and the road that makes you ‘cool’. I can think of plenty of times when I took the ‘interstate’. I thought it would make me cool and I would have all these cool friends but instead it left me feeling lonelier than ever before. I had hit the toll road. I had to pay for the road I had taken. That toll isn’t always cheap. You can end up paying for the life you’ve lived. Life will always come to collect. Life won’t let you pass unless you pay up.
There is a way that leads to redemption from our past mistakes – the Road of Redemption. "And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness..." (Isaiah 35:8) This road will not be easy to travel. There may not be a shoulder. The road will be rough. The road will be narrow. You may find yourself wanting to turn back from time to time. The road will cause hardships but it is the only road that can be taken to find freedom. The Road of Redemption was paved by Jesus. In John 14:6 Jesus told us he is the way, “Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one come to the Father except through me.’” Jesus is the only way to the life we were meant to live. I imagine this way to be like a dirt road. When you come to the intersection and see a dirt road, you ponder whether or not the road is worth taking. Jesus never promised us a life of ease or comfort when we choose to follow him, instead he assured us we would have troubles. “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33) People will ridicule you for your belief. People will try to cause you to stumble. People will oppose you and will try to convince you this dirt road is not worth taking. They will tell you to take the next exit and head back over to the interstate where the road is wide and life is easier. There will be illusions of greener grass on the other side of the fence. It may look like the people taking the interstate are having way more fun than you are traveling on the dirt road. As I mentioned earlier, just because you have been driving on the dirt road for a while doesn’t make you an expert. You will lose control some days. You will get stuck in muddy situations. You will have bad days and you will feel like a failure. You will feel like reverting back to your old life. You will be tempted.
Jesus didn’t leave us to deal with opposition and troubles alone. He knew we alone were too weak to withstand the pressures of life. When Jesus ascended back into heaven, he left us the Holy Spirit to dwell within us. “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.” (Romans 8:26) I think of the Holy Spirit like the GPS in my car. I am useless with directions and rely solely on the GPS when I travel. In the same way, the Spirit is our GPS to guide us through life. We can rely solely on the Spirit to guide us in times of joy and in times of turmoil. Exit the interstate. Jesus has paid your toll. Your GPS is telling you to take the dirt road, the narrow road. Take it.
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