Anita Ojeda Life is a journey full of choices. How can you tell if you’ve chosen the wrong road?
Matthew 7:14 NIV
“But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”
What is a Wrong Road?
We all want an easy life—fulfilling relationships, a fun job, money in the bank, and purpose. The world assures us we deserve these things and offers myriad ways to achieve an easy life.
“Buy one, get one FREE!”
“You can’t live without this!”
“Buy now while supplies last!”
Lightening McQueen might croon about life being a highway, but only if you’re willing to pass up real life. If you zoom through life on the wrong road, you’ll miss out on the little things that make life meaningful.
You can’t have meaningful relationships if you live at the speed of light. You’ll overlook the hurting, the marginalized, and those who need your love.
If you take no joy in your job, it’s the wrong road. I don’t love everything about teaching. My peers who chose other lines of work make more than I do. Shoot, trash collectors make about the same as teachers do, and they have set hours, no papers to grade, and no irate parents to deal with.
But most days, I love my job, and I know I make a difference in other people’s lives. I’ll never reach the middle class (evidently, middle-class people spend 10-20k a year on vacations, according to one report I read a few years ago). But God didn’t bless me so I could spend my money on myself.
I have purpose—to love others and help in whatever ways I can. Whether it’s comforting someone who hurts or donating to a cause.
God didn’t promise us a highway. He told us the road to life would have troubles (John 16:33), narrow passages, and we’d have to search for it.
The good news about choosing the wrong road? You can always turn around.
Nearly every road I’ve chosen
looked, at times, quite wrong,
and sometimes I felt frozen
in a play gone on too long,
but when I had made up my mind
to make best of my error-ways,
lo and behold, yes, I did find
that my very brightest days
served what should have been rejected,
the life at which my heart did scoff;
somehow, the sad, bad, neglected
managed, here, to pull it off
that pride was born of cold derision,
and grace born of a poor decision.
Our choices are always reversable–maybe not to the before-the-choice-state, but sometimes something better!
Anita Ojeda recently posted…Spine-Tingling Books to Read This October
Your post stimulated my thoughts. I’m currently studying Revelation–the 7 churches. It is interesting to read the different commendations and reproofs. A couple of the churches were going to suffer more than others. All were called to repent of sin and be steadfast in their faith, enduring and overcoming. And so I think about the focus of my life–the path of faith is most important!
Amen!
Anita Ojeda recently posted…Spine-Tingling Books to Read This October
Love this post. It has given me much to think about.
Thanks for sharing.
I have been having discussions about this with my 24 year old son. In the words of someone (has yet to be confirmed who), “Whatever you are, be a good one.”
Yes: “The good news about choosing the wrong road? You can always turn around.” I’m so thankful that God goes with us everywhere and can help us turn around as needed.
Lisa notes recently posted…Do You Regret What You Did Do, or What You Didn’t Do? —Grace & Truth Linkup
Sometimes the right road is more uncomfortable when starting out than the wrong road – this Tolkien quote came to mind about people, but can still apply to a road taken: ““I think a servant of the enemy would look fairer and feel fouler.” I am not only grateful I can turn around, I am grateful to be brave enough to stay on the road that is the right road – even when it’s uncomfortable.
YES! Made me think about the roads I have chosen too. I love that you remind us that we can turn around if we are on the wrong road. We can repent. But God wastes nothing of even those days, weeks, years that we spend on the wrong road. Nothing is wasted. Thank you.
“God didn’t promise us a highway. He told us the road to life would have troubles…” – we (I) sometimes forget this, thanks for the reminder. “The good news about choosing the wrong road? You can always turn around” – that is good news indeed 🙌🏽