Going the Wrong Way on the Right Road

Have you ever found yourself going the wrong way on the right road? What I mean is, you think you are going the right way, because you are on the right road, only to find out that you are going the wrong way. This has happened to me and, to be honest, it can shake you up a bit.

Last year Melinda and I were returning home from preaching for some dear friends in Louisiana. We had enjoyed ourselves with good services, good fellowship and good food. Earlier that days, as we were passing through Natchez, Mississippi, we had stopped and visited an old plantation. We had stepped back in time a hundred and fifty years and played the tourist. The day was beautiful and now we were focused on the drive ahead of us.

Warm sunshine on my left shoulder, the late hours of fellowship, time walking in the sunshine, a lunch and the monotony of the drive started to make me feel a bit drowsy. I looked over to see if Melinda felt like driving, but alas, I was too late! She had succumbed to what I was fighting. So I turned the air up, turned on the stereo and focused on staying awake!

We were driving up Highway 425 toward Bastrop, Louisiana heading toward Monticello, Arkansas. We had traveled this way a few times before, but it was always a while between trips so I knew I had to be careful and pay attention to the road and highway changes, but since I was staying on Highway 425 I felt really comfortable. To stay alert I began to pay more attention to the scenery, although there isn’t a lot to see in that area except fields of crops, and these were just starting to grow in the mid spring weather.

We passed a power plant and I thought to myself, “I don’t remember seeing that before?” However, being old and feeble minded as I am, I figured I just hadn’t noticed it prior to this. Then I began to think, there are several things I don’t remember seeing in the past. I just drove this road a few days ago, I should remember this? Again, I shrugged my shoulders and kept on driving. About that time Melinda woke up and I saw a sign that said, “Monroe 20 miles.”

Melinda immediately said, “Why are we headed to Monroe? Isn’t that the wrong way?” (Where was she twenty minutes earlier?) I replied, “I don’t know!” I started looking for a place to safely get off the road to check out the map. To make a long story short, we were headed toward Monroe, Louisiana which was the opposite direction from which we were suppose to be traveling. Fortunately we had only traveled about five miles the wrong way when we realized our mistake.
As we were backtracking, I asked myself where I had gone wrong? When we got back to the junction that I had missed I noticed it wasn’t well marked. I also noticed, and looking at a map I found I was correct, the highway changed directions ever so slightly, to the point as one wouldn’t notice the change. To stay on the right road I actually had to make a right turn and continue north. However, if I had been paying attention, I would have noticed I was headed in the wrong direction. The first indicator was the sun was no longer shining on my left shoulder, it was on the right side of the car. The scenery was different.  It was very unfamiliar. The road signs would have told me I was on the wrong road.

Last Christmas Jared and Amber, our son and daughter-in-love, came and spent a few days with us. We really enjoyed our time together and one evening we decided to go look at Christmas lights. There is one street in our town that has their lights set to music and you can listen to the music over a radio station and watch the lights blink and flash to the music.

We stopped at Starbucks and got some hot beverages to enjoy on a cold winter night and went to look at lights. After we found the neighborhood we were looking for, we continued to drive around looking at other lights and enjoying our time together. Melinda suggested we go to an upper class area that was built around a golf course. It had been several years since I had been in that area and I had never been there in the dark so it took me a few minutes to locate it again. We wound our way up and down the streets, commenting on both the displays and the beautiful homes until finally we had seen all there was to see.

I began looking for the exit to this community and finally found it. I looked at the street sign and it said, “Hogan,” so I thought, “I know where I am!” This wasn’t the street we had came in on but it would work. I made a left turn and drove a little way to a stop sign. I thought to myself, there shouldn’t be a road here, but I recognize the road and I know where I am. Again I made a left turn and we headed off into the night. Pretty soon I see a sign on my left that indicated we were passing the dump. I commented, I thought that was on the other side of the road and kept on driving. Not long after that there was a sign for Cadron Settlement Park, then there was a bridge and I knew I was on the right road but headed the wrong way. Somehow, wondering the streets looking at lights I had gotten turned around and should have made a right turn on Hogan or a right turn on Highway 64.

You know I have had this happen a few times in my spiritual walk as well. I’m going along living for God and dealing with life. I am doing my best, only to find out that somewhere along the way I had missed a turn or I had made a wrong turn and now I was on the right road but headed the wrong way. I had not left my walk with God, but I had lost direction.

There are indicators that we need to pay attention to that will warn us we are traveling in the wrong direction. Let me list a few: 1) No time to pray. I find myself just too busy right now and will catch it later. 2) Lack of interest in my Bible. I can find time and interest to read the newspaper, Facebook, Yahoo sports but I’m not interested in my Bible. 3) Isolating myself from my spiritual brothers and sisters. I find myself pulling away rather than drawing close. 4) I find money becoming very important to me. Money is necessary in our lives, but the love of money is the root of all evil. When everything becomes about money let, it is a warning. 5) Finding myself alienated from my Pastor and spiritual mentors. No person can survive without a Pastor. I need to trust those who have invested in my life and my walk with God to lead me. I need to turn to them for direction.

Every once in a while it is important to make sure we are on the right road and headed in the right direction. I need to make sure the indicators are telling me that I am going right. I can try and convince myself that I am ok, but I am only fooling myself. Eventually I am going to find myself a long way from where I need to be. I might be on the right road, but am I headed in the right direction?