Which Way?

Have you ever been lost? I was lost in a big city once. I was driving down the freeway, when suddenly I went into a tunnel and found myself at a stop sign. Where was I?

I couldn’t turn around and there were no signs to show me where to go. I stopped to ask for directions, but I only ended up winding around the city streets. The signs all said things like: “Hwong’s Place” and “Chin’s laundromat.” This was Chinatown, not the freeway!

“How do you get to the freeway from here?” I asked the people walking past. They tried to be helpful. But none of their directions got me to the freeway. I was lost and confused. High overhead I could see the freeway, but where was the onramp? If only I knew which way I was supposed to go!

At last I saw it. Up high on a traffic light post—a sign to the freeway. I had driven right by it and not noticed it before. How thankful I was to follow the arrow and be going in the right direction again!

It is not fun to be lost and not know which way to go. But most people are lost. Not lost in a big city, but lost inside. They don’t how to be happy or live right. Even when people tell them about it, they are confused. “I try and try, but I can’t be good,” they say. “God never helps me.” The problem is, they can’t find God’s way because they are looking in the wrong place.

The Lord tells us, “My ways [are] higher than your ways.”* (Isaiah 55:9) That means we cannot do right on our own, just like the freeway was too high for me to reach from the city streets. But we will only be really happy if we go God’s way, and live right like He does. That is why God made a safe road for us, called “the Highway of Holiness” (Isaiah 35:8), which leads to heaven. But how can we get up on it?

The secret of finding the Highway is not by wandering around on our own. We need to stop our own trying, and look up to God. The Bible says, “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.”* (James 4:10) We can’t live right with sin in our lives. That is why God sent His Son to be an onramp to the Highway for us. Jesus said, “I am the way… no one can come to the Father, but by me.”* (John 14:6) Jesus lived on God’s Highway, then He laid down His life for us so that we could live right, too. The way to the Highway is to believe and follow Jesus.

Which way are you going today? Are you on God’s Highway or wandering around on your own? When you are lost and confused, remember that God has a better way. It is where everyone loves right and hates wrong, and Jesus leads the way to heaven.