Right Lane, Wrong Way

I consider myself a good driver. You may not, but I wasn't really asking.

At least I consider myself a good driver when nobody's in the car with me. For some reason, the moment a passenger steps in the car, I suddenly rely on them for direction and I end up getting flustered and confused without much effort. I don't know why this happens, but it does. If nobody is in the car with me, I do fine. I just go along, follow directions, and I get where I'm going.

I'm going to tell two stories real quick, and, as the best stories often do, they involve road trips.

First, let me tell you the story of our romp in Dallas. My friends and I had gone to Shreveport to see Georgia play Texas A&M for the Independence Bowl (Dawgs won), but we got there a couple days early and decided to keep on moving down the road because...surprise...there's nothing to do in Shreveport except gamble and eat casino buffet food (which is fantastic).

So we're in Dallas driving around and we have no idea where we're going or why we're going there. Keep in mind, this was after we were nearly murdered at Dealey Plaza (things I have in common with JFK...sorta). So we're driving and, long story short, I end up accidentally turning into the wrong lane of traffic. I had somehow mistakenly turned one road early on a turn lane and ended up in the wrong lane. I still have no idea how that happened, to be honest. It was a scary couple of seconds, but we got back in the right lane of a divided highway no problem. I know Rylan, Andrew and Todd are still glad to be alive after that one.

My next story also involves Todd (although similar versions of this have happened with just about everyone I've driven around). We were on our way to see Garth Brooks in Nashville when we come up to a road where I'm not sure which direction I need to be going. Well Todd is holding the GPS, so he's supposed to be directing me. I ask him, "Which direction do I go?"

He says, "Go right."

I say again, "Todd. Which direction do I go! They're both right!"

He says again, "Go right!"

By this point, I'm furious and confused, just like any time someone gave me clothes at Christmas when I was a kid. I eventually grab the GPS out of Todd's hand and discover that I want to take the North exit for the interstate, not the South one, which was the question I needed answered in the first place...Todd. I would also be remiss if I didn't admit that Dana and Rylan were in the car with me for this trip, too, and can attest to the absurdity of that moment.

It gets worse, though. About a week or so later, a few of us are driving around in Memphis to see Georgia play UCF in the Liberty Bowl (I don't want to talk about it). This time, for whatever stupid reason, Todd was once again directing me where to go. Once again, we had the same absurd exchange. Once again, Andrew was witness to my frustrated driving. Sorry.

The reason I throw Todd under the bus is this. It was very clear very quick that I was in the wrong lane of traffic. I mean, it was painfully obvious. It's not normal to look ahead at a red light and see cars staring you down in the same lane, or at least it isn't unless you've been visiting Little Britain.

Then again, had I made the wrong turn onto the interstate and taken the route north instead of the route south, it could have taken a while before I realized I was going the wrong way. I have actually driven the wrong direction more than once before getting a few miles down the road and realizing that I had made a mistake.

No question plagues the mind of Christian young adults and college students today more than, "What is God's will for my life?" If we're being honest, many not as young adults would probably agree that they still struggle with this question, though maybe they're no longer in a place spiritually or emotionally where they feel like it's really appropriate to ask such a question.

The answer to God's will for our lives has two parts. First, there's the path often described as the "straight and narrow." Observe:

Matthew 7:13-14 (NLT)

¹³You can enter God's Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to Hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way. ¹⁴ But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it.

God clearly wants us to follow the road to life. God wants us to follow His commands and live according to His laws. While we may disagree on certain aspects of Scripture and what parts of the old and new covenant apply to us today, most of us who identify as Christians and actually intend to live by the Word of God have an idea of when we are following the wrong path. We can tell when we are living in a way that is contrary to God's love and His commands, right?

But we all know what people are really asking when they say, "What's God's will for my life?" Again, it first comes down to trusting in Christ and following Him, living by His commands and obeying His Word, but then it comes down to something more difficult to ascertain: what does God want me to do?

In that regard, the original question is a bit flawed. We put the onus back on God here by asking what He wants. Yes, it's good that we care about God's plan and that we seek out His will, but that's not what we really want. We want answers. We want God to just tell us what decisions to make.

Unfortunately, God gave us free will. The whole point is that we make our own decisions. Just like I blamed Todd for my near mistakes earlier simply because he was holding the GPS (which I still do blame you for), we put God in the potential blame seat. The real question we ought to be asking is "What should I do for you, God?" It's a subtle difference, but I thrive on subtle differences. When we ask what we should do for God, that puts the requirement back on us. Yes, we need God's leadership and guidance, but the responsibility to act is on us. The buck is back in our court, so to speak.

While it can be pretty obvious from a distance whether or not a decision is a good thing and keeps us on the "straight and narrow," it can be much less obvious when we are making good decisions but following the wrong path. Sometimes Christians make this mistake in dating and relationships. We think that just because someone is also a believer that it should work no matter what. I know a lot of great Christian women in this world, but I couldn't be married to most of them. To be even more specific, I could only be married to one of them: my wife. I love her, and she is a Christian, but there's more to our relationship than that one thing we share. While our faith is a vital point of agreement between us, that's not the only thing. She had to be the right woman, not just a good one. I had to be the right man, not just a good one.

We can do the same thing with our job or our college or any number of big or middle-sized decisions. We think that any move we make has to be the right move because we follow God. If it's not a sin, it's okay. As long as I'm not dealing drugs or selling children into third-world slavery, I'm doing okay. As long as I go to a Christian college as long as I'm working in ministry, I must be doing right.

It comes down to the difference between accuracy and correctness. Have you ever seen someone put a basketball through the wrong hoop during a game? I have, and it's both hilarious and depressing. They made an accurate shot, sure, but it was still wrong.

I have been in situations where I knew I was right where God wanted me and I was doing exactly what I should, and it was great. I have also been in situations where I was doing something that was morally good, but it wasn't really where God wanted me to be. How could I tell, you ask? Why, because that's kind of the premise of this post and it's taken me the better part of 1,000+ words to get there? Okay. Fine. I'll tell you.

But first, let me tell you what isn't the way to know. Some folks think that if they're happy, they must be in God's good graces. Some folks even think that if they see God moving and working, they must be where they're supposed to be. Now some people may take umbrage with what I'm about to say, but I still believe it to be true. Just because you are happy, and just because you see God work in someone's life, that doesn't mean you're following the right path.

After all, didn't God even use Jonah's storm to show His power to a group of sailors who eventually proclaimed Him as the one, true God? Clearly Jonah was going the wrong direction. He was intentionally going opposite the direction that God had called him to, yet God used that experience for His glory.

Just because we see God move in a situation, that doesn't always make it the right place for us to be. That just means that God won't waste our mistakes. Rather, He will still find a way to use them, even if the benefit is not what it could be with our full obedience.

Happiness isn't really enough of an indicator, either. After all, I'm sure folks on the Titanic were having a grand old time right up until they hit an iceberg.

No, what really tells us whether or not we are following God's designated path for our lives is peace. When we are living in full compliance with the life that God has prepared us for, both morally and directionally, there is peace.

Philippians 4:6-7 (NLT)

⁶Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done. ⁷ Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

God's peace is the greatest indicator that we're following in the path that He has laid before us. If we are living without that peace, then we are probably either violating God's moral commands for the Christian life or we are following a path that is not what He made us for. God is the only perfect craftsman, and He made each and every one of us for a specific purpose. When we are fulfilling that purpose, we will know His peace.

Now that doesn't mean that everything wrong in life happens because we are outside of God's will. No. Not at all. In fact, it is quite the opposite. Sometimes, God will prepare us for the struggles in life through the path He has planned for us. Just as happiness and seeing God move are not automatically valid indicators that we are following God's plan, pain and suffering are not necessarily signs that we are living outside of God's will.

At the same time, God's path for us is rarely static. Instead, He has laid before most of us a fluid, dynamic path that will see shifts and changes in direction over time. A certain activity could be right for us one day and wrong the next, and God will let us know that. If we lose that peace, it may be God's way of alerting us to a bend in the road. We need to change direction to keep following the right road.

The truth is, God's will is complicated. If we could understand it, we would be God. The best we can do is follow the steps and listen for God's voice to deliver us in the right direction. His peace will guide us in the way that we should go, and it will surely do a far sight better than Todd.

Thanks, Todd.



BONUS THOUGHT:

I feel like this post would be incomplete without the addition of one more key passage. I had been debating on how exactly to include this piece of scripture, but I knew that it needed to be included one way or another. Essentially, it comes to this. For all of my long-windedness, God's Word pretty well sums up the idea of following God's path in just a few words; a few simple words (Go Dawgs...sorry; force of habit). In order to follow the path God has for us, we just have to...follow the path God has for us.

Proverbs 3:5-6 (NLT)

⁵Trust in the Lord with all your heart;
do not depend on your own understanding.
⁶ Seek his will in all you do,
and he will show you which path to take.

Well. Maybe next time I'll lead with that.

Turn on the Lights

An older gentleman got out of bed one night to use the restroom. He almost forgot, but he put on his glasses so he could see.

As he stepped out of bed, he bumped his knee into the night stand and let out a bit of a whimpering yell as not to wake his sleeping wife. A few steps later, the elderly man stepped on the dog's tale and caused it to bark and nip at the man's foot, nearly knocking him over. He finally got to the door to enter the hall, but he fumbled around for the doorknob and created a scratching ruckus loud enough to wake his wife.

"What are you doing, Edgar?" (His name is Edgar. I probably should have mentioned that sooner.)

"I'm going to the bathroom, but I can't find the door," Edgar responded. His name is Edgar. Did I tell you that?

"Well...have you got on your glasses?" Myrtle asked. Her name is Myrtle, but you don't really need to know that.

"Yes, of course I've got my glasses, Tabitha," he answered. I forgot. Her name is actually Tabitha.

"Is the doorknob still there, Edgar?" Myrtle came back.

"Yes, I'm sure the doorknob is still there. Where else would it be?" an impatient Edgar snapped.

"Did you bother to turn the light on?"

I wear glasses. Many people wear glasses. Those who are insecure enough in their appearance wear contact lenses or go around blind. Glasses are great for making your vision clearer and letting you see better either at a distance or closer up. That's fantastic, I think. You know what else glasses are great for? Making a fashion statement, which you wouldn't know if you wear contacts or had wimp laser surgery done.

The point I'm getting at, though, is that glasses can do some things well and others not so much. Unless your glasses are of the night-vision variety, they will not help you see in the dark. That's just not something that normal eyeglasses can do. For that, it's best that you just turn on the lights.

Edgar had forgotten that crucial step, and he ended up causing some problems. A lot of us have the same problem when it comes to our spiritual lives. We're real clear on what we think of Jesus, but we don't really have Jesus.

It's great that you spend time in the Bible reading about Jesus. That's fantastic. It's wonderful that you read message boards and supporting materials to see what people have to say about Christ and our relationship with God. Cool! Do that. I love it that you want to have deep, religious conversations with people and pick their brains about who Jesus is to them and what He means when he says this or that. Good! But y'all...there is so much more than that.

When we take care of the intellectual aspects of religion, we're putting on glasses in the dark. It makes the picture clearer, sure, but you still can't really see the picture, can you, because it's still shrouded in darkness. There's no such thing as a saving knowledge.

Don't misunderstand me. Our knowledge of Christ and our Biblical IQ can lead to a saving faith, sure, but that intellect alone will never be enough. You're just seeing the dark more clearly.

John 5:39 (NLT)

"You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to Me!

It is great if people want to know who Jesus is and what He did, but knowing is just half the battle. It all comes down to faith, and faith is far more active than knowledge. Faith requires sacrifice. And action. And doing stuff. Which is action.

But before I get to action, let's talk about those Scriptures I referenced up there...with Scriptures. (Cue Inception button) I fully believe that the Bible is the Word of God and that we should take it at it's Word. If we do not, we are essentially calling God a liar, in my opinion.

I've heard people say that they admire the teachings of Christ but they do not see Him as God. Some people go so far as to say that perhaps there is a grand conspiracy that Jesus' political followers made him out to be more than He said He was later on so that their movement would gain traction.

Interesting theory, really. However, it has a few flaws. The primary flaw is this. If you say that you like what Jesus said and you like his political movement, but not the statements about Him being God, then how can you trust the political statements in the Bible? How do you know they're really what God said?

That is why we have to ask ourselves if we trust the Bible's claims of God fully or not. If we do not, then we have no business claiming Christ in any way, shape or form, whether religiously or politically. If we do, then we must take Him at His full Word. Fully.

The reason I branch off into this tangent is because if we are going to approach the idea of Faith in God through intellectual knowledge about God, then we have to understand what exactly that intellectual knowledge of God indicates. If our knowledge of God is flawed, then our Faith will never be fully realized. Again, consider the story of Edgar and Mary. Or Maybelle. Whatever her name was. You have buttons. Scroll up and read it again. Seriously, that story couldn't take you more than thirty-seconds to read. I'll wait.

So consider the story of Ed and Willamena once more. Had he turned on the lights, but not put on his glasses, his vision would still be obscured. Now we know that our knowledge of Christ will never be complete in this life, but that doesn't mean we should not strive to know God more, and if the light is on, then the picture really will become clearer the more we know of Jesus Christ and who He is.

When you pair the two together, knowledge and faith, you get a brilliant picture of who God is, and that is an image that nobody should half experience.

The story that John 5 tells is one that is common in the gospels. Jesus is speaking to the religious leaders of the day, very intelligent men, just after performing a great many miracles. These guys don't like Jesus very much, and He rebukes them for it. Go read John 5 and see how Jesus talks to them. He says that Moses will judge them because Moses wrote about Jesus long before any of these things had happened, but they would not believe. They had no faith in Jesus.

Let's jump ahead, though. Look to John 18, specifically v. 10-11. While Jesus is being arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, Simon Peter cuts off a dude's ear with a sword. I'm not sure if that's the worst aim ever or the best aim ever, because it can't be easy to cut off an ear, but he was probably aiming for the middle of this guy's head. So...yeah.

Anyway, look at what Jesus says to Simon Peter. He tells Simon Peter that He must go do what He is supposed to do. Jesus tells Peter that these things must happen. Peter didn't know what Jesus was going to do. Peter lacked knowledge, but man, did he have some faith, or what? Not necessarily the right faith, maybe, but his love and his passion for Christ was so great that he was willing to attack a servant of the high priest. That's pretty serious, y'all.

So that's what happens when we pair faith and belief with ignorance. We get action without direction and results. We get action without compassion. I think that right there describes so much of what the Christian culture is about these days: we act without concern for consequences. We're chopping off ears left and right because we're trying to defend Christ.

Had Peter known what the purpose of this arrest would ultimately be, I doubt he would have been so eager to chop off a man's ear. Or head. Either way. But Peter had no idear. (Ha. I didn't even mean to type that, but I did, and now I'm leaving it because I like puns.)

To review: knowledge without faith is darkness, but faith without knowledge is dangerous. When we do not know and understand Christ's capacity for love, we act without thinking or loving people. We fail to realize just how much God loves people, even those who do not know Him. Yes, we are absolutely called to minister to the lost and share Christ's message with them, but we cannot do so at the cost of everything we're working for. If we chop off people's ears, how will they hear that God truly loves them?

So what happens when faith and knowledge come together? Stephen.

Go read Acts 7. In Acts 7, Stephen becomes "the first martyr." More importantly, he schools the Sanhedrin. He recounts their entire history and their religion, but he does so while proclaiming Christ. He knows that this will get him killed most likely, but Stephen has the faith to follow Christ's calling to the end. Stephen uses the knowledge he has of Christ and the Jewish faith to spread the Word.

"I don't think God's going to call me to share the gospel with the Sanhedrin, Adam." Yeah. You're probably right. I think they've disbanded by now (speaking of which...did you hear about Motley Crue?), but that doesn't mean you can't put your knowledge and faith to action. I have a hard time believing that Stephen's first time speaking up was in front of those guys. Oh. That's right. He was there specifically because he had been caught sharing with people about Jesus, along with a little good'ol fashioned courtroom lying.

When our faith and our knowledge of Christ come together, we can do incredible things. Not just for others, but also for ourselves. Like I said, I want you to read your Bible. I want you to be in the Word. Great! Do those things. But do them with the light of Jesus guiding your reading. Do them with the knowledge of Christ guiding you closer to Him.

Please. Turn on the Light. If you do, people will see it.

Also, put your glasses on. Don't step on the poor dog's tail.