Devotional: May, 2009

Follow the Directions

A businessman travels to a small community to visit a client.  He doesn’t have an address for the elderly woman, so he stops at the local store to ask where she lives.

“Could you tell me if you know a Mrs. McFarland?” he asks the clerk.

“Why, yes,” the man replies cheerfully.  “She doesn’t live far from here.”

“Wonderful!  Could you possibly give me some directions to her home?  I need to pay her a visit concerning her business affairs.”

“No trouble at all,” the man begins.  “Take a right out of the parking lot, go to the stop sign….”

“Excuse me, sir,” the visitor interrupts, “but I don’t want to take a right out of the parking lot.  I would much prefer to take a left.  It looks like better road.”

The clerk looks puzzled and says, “But, sir, I thought you wanted to go to Mrs. McFarland’s?  I’m trying to tell you how to get there.”

“Oh, I understand that and I appreciate your sincerity in wanting to help me,” the man smiles.  “But I just don’t want to go the way you are telling me.  How do I get there if I turn left instead of right?”

The bewildered worker muttered something under his breath about know-it-alls and then states, “Well, sir, if you insist on going that way, you can still get to the old woman’s house, but it will take you much longer.  After you take a left, go 3 miles and take another left onto Swelling Brook road.  Now we’ve had a lot of rain and I’ve heard the bridge might be out, so be careful when you get near the water.”

“Thank you for your concern,” the self-confident man replies, “but I’m sure it hasn’t rained enough to be a bother.  And Mrs. McFarland lives on that road?”

“No!” the exasperated man retorts.  “As I told you, it will take much longer to get there this way.  If you make it across the bridge, you have to go another ten miles, then take a left onto Wide Way, go 15 miles and take a left onto Broad Street.  Then, you have to…” the man’s voice trails off as the businessman holds up his hand.

“Sir, I’m sure you are trying to be helpful, but I simply do not want to follow your instructions.  In fact, I think it’s very narrow-minded of you to think I have to take the route you suggest to get where I’d like to go.  I think I am simply going to get in my car and go my own way,” and the man left the store.

Needless to say, he never made it to Mrs. McFarland’s house.

This is a seemingly silly fictional story, but I find that it has great spiritual application.  We find it ludicrous that an intelligent man thinks he can get in his car, take any road he desires, and end up at his chosen destination, disregarding all directions even after inviting them.  And yet so often, we do the same thing in life. 

I am amazed at the people I meet that choose a road of destruction, then at the end of that road are surprised that their life is in shambles.  They just don’t understand how they got there, even though they went directly against Godly advice and Biblical principles!  Now, I’ll admit that sometimes choosing our own way is the easier choice in the beginning.  In fact, Jesus said that it’s a wide gate, easy to get through, a broad road that leads to destruction, and lots of people choose it (see Matthew 7:13-14).  Unfortunately, many people give no thought to where that road will take them!

It’s common sense, really.  The road you take decides your destination.  You can’t expect to go east by taking the west-bound interstate!  And you can’t blame your decisions on someone else, any more than the businessman couldn’t blame the clerk for getting lost!  Maybe you have asked for help, but rejected the truth.  Don’t waste time wondering how you got there.  You have arrived where you are by taking that road.  But if there is still breath in your body and this warning convicts you, it is time to change course.  It’s like my GPS tells me when I am going the wrong direction: “Turn around when possible!”  But the longer you choose to ignore that voice speaking to you, the harder it will be and the longer it will take to get back to the right road. 

Read the road signs.  Study the map.  Follow the directions.  And choose your road very carefully.

--Sonya