There are so many crossroads in life that I can look back on and wonder what my life would be like if I would have turned a different direction. My parents divorced when I was ten was an undesirable crossroads for my life. Graduating high school provided a clear crossroads for my life that I chose the path to a degree in electronics for the money. Later I went back to school for my Master of Divinity for the call of God and my passion. Heather, my wife of 22 years now, was a crossroads. Mitchell, my oldest son, was born with Down Syndrome was a crossroads. Foster care was a crossroads in our life that has been tough and rewarding at the same time. Adoption was another crossroads that has taught me more about the love of God than any other single event in my life. Katelyn’s, my middle daughter, inoperable brain tumor is a crossroads.
You see, there are many crossroads in our lives. Some are choices we get to make for ourselves, and others take us down a path we neither desired or chose to happen. The major problem with crossroads in life is that we either lean on our intellect or our emotion to decide the path we take. We live in such a fast paced world that often times we just run right through the crossroads and never slow down to really ponder our next step. We act as though we don’t have to make a decision if we don’t acknowledge it.
I find a very intriguing verse in the Bible that talks about the crossroads of life. In the upcoming weeks I will be preaching about this verse, and I hope it will become your verse and that you will actually use it to help move forward through the upcoming crossroads in your life. Those crossroads you get to decide and those that crash into you unaware and uninvited! My own intellect or my emotional outcry will never provide the best path for me to take. At the end of the verse that I am using it reads, “But you reply, ‘No, that’s not the road we want!’” I know this, if you want ‘rest for your souls,’ then you must “stop”, then “ask”, and then “travel its path!”
I don’t know what you have previously endured, what you are enduring, or what you will endure in the future. However, I know Jesus loves you and has a purpose for your life despite the circumstances that hurt you in a real and lasting way. God desires to give you “rest for your souls.” Will you do it? Will you “stop?” Will you “ask?” Will you “travel its path.”
The Bible reads in Jeremiah 6:11 (NLT), “This is what the Lord says: “Stop at the crossroads and look around. Ask for the old, godly way, and walk in it. Travel its path, and you will find rest for your souls. But you reply, ‘No, that’s not the road we want!’” Here is your next crossroads: Will you travel the path God is telling you to go?
In Christ Alone and continuing in prayer,
Chad
