The Fork in the Road
The Road that Leads to Life and the Path of Destruction
“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.” -Matthew 7:13-14 (NIV)
Right Road, Wrong Direction
A couple of months ago, my family and I took a road trip from our home in Nebraska to the Leadership Training for Christ convention in Kansas City, Missouri. In order to get there, we had to drive a short distance through Omaha and then merge onto I-80 East towards Iowa so we could then cut down south towards Missouri. So, I followed the signs and jumped onto I-80.
The only problem was, I was going West towards Lincoln instead of East towards Iowa. I was on the right road, but I was going in the wrong direction. And every minute I kept driving in the wrong direction put me that much farther from my destination.
Has that ever happened to you? The obvious thing to do in that situation is to take the first exit, do a U-turn, and start going in the right direction again. So that’s what we did, and we eventually made it to Kansas City — although a little later than we otherwise would have.
But now I want you to imagine that instead of admitting my mistake and turning around, I doubled down on I-80 West toward Lincoln. What if I absolutely refused to admit that I had made a mistake — that I was on the wrong road?
What if I refused to turn the car around and just hoped that I would somehow still end up in the right place?
What if I called the LTC directors and demanded that they move the entire convention to Lincoln, since that’s where I was heading?
What if I acted like I was always trying to go to Lincoln, and made my family feel like they were crazy for thinking that the original plan was to go to Kansas City?
And what if I defended my mistake by pointing at all the other cars who were going West with me too — we can’t all be wrong, can we?
Do you know anyone who acts that way? Someone who seems like they are allergic to admitting to a mistake? The reality is that all of those things are just excuses, delusions, and justifications. And if that’s the way I’m going to respond when I make a mistake, I’m never going to reach my destination. After all, it takes a certain amount of humility to admit we messed up, turn things around, and start going the right way again.
About 70 years ago, C.S. Lewis made this point in his book Mere Christianity:
“Progress means getting nearer to the place where you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turning, then to go forward does not get you any nearer. If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road…. There is nothing progressive about being pig-headed and refusing to admit a mistake. If you look at the present state of the world, it is pretty plain that humanity has been making some big mistake. We are on the wrong road. And if that is so, we must go back. Going back is the quickest way on.”
C.S. Lewis makes a powerful point about the importance of admitting our mistakes: The sooner a person admits they’re on the wrong path, the sooner they can turn around and start making real progress down the right one.
Doubling Down on the Road to Destruction
In my last post, I shared about the pivotal moment in the grand narrative of the Bible when people rebelled against God and introduced sin into the world. This was, to say the least, a massive wrong turn. It fundamentally changed the good world God created by separating us from God and turning people against each other. And as a result, God punished the serpent and disciplined Adam and Eve.
You would hope that this would be a wake-up call for humanity. You would hope that Adam and Eve (and their family) would be so brokenhearted about their sin that they would vow to never rebel against God again — to do everything in their power to choose the right path by seeking God with all their hearts.
But what actually happened next in the Biblical story is that instead of repenting and choosing to walk down the road that leads to life, people doubled down on the road to destruction. The next several chapters of Genesis show us what happens when people refuse to admit they are on the wrong road, starting with Cain and Able and culminating with the story of Noah and the flood. It’s a story of greed, violence, and unbridled self-centeredness.
These chapters (Genesis 4-6) show us that we all have a choice to make about how our lives are going to go. God gives us the free will to build our lives on the truth of his Word or the values of this world. And although we are free to choose which foundation to build on, we are not free from the consequences of our choices.
One of those roads leads to life with God, but the other one leads only to destruction.
Here’s how Moses presented it to the community of Israel in Deuteronomy 30:15-20, as he prepared to pass the baton to his successor Joshua:
15 See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. 16 For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess. 17 But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, 18 I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. 19 This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live 20 and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Just as Moses called the people of Israel to choose the path to follow — the road that leads to life, or the road that leads to death — each of us must choose which path to travel. We all have to decide what kind of foundation we are building our lives on — the solid rock of Jesus, or the shifting sands of the world.
In my next post, we’ll explore the story of Cain and Abel and reflect on the important things God reveals about the nature of sin and how we are to respond when we are tempted. But for now, we ought to ask ourselves, are we on the right road?
you made some real good points. great lesson