The 2500-Mile Road Trip

Jessica Waldstein

[Editor’s Note: Brian was of two minds about Psalm 1, so wrote two Connect Devotionals, and then couldn’t decide which to go with.  So his first posted Monday … and two CDs for you today, first from Jessica, then Brian’s second swing]

God charts the road you take. The road *they* take leads to nowhere. Psalm 1:6 MSG

The first big trip I took with my husband was our honeymoon. We flew to Las Vegas, rented a car, and then drove a giant loop from there to the California coast, Arizona, Utah, and back to Las Vegas for our flight home. We were gone for almost three weeks, and we drove thousands of miles. Actually, my new husband drove thousands of miles! 

At the time I had very little experience driving outside of the state I had grown up in, and most of my driving skills could only be applied to rural roads and highways. Big city driving with eight lanes of interstate, merging and changing lanes, and west coast traffic being what it is…I was not the best candidate for that drive. 

My husband planned each leg of our trip and printed directions from MapQuest before we left. We picked up state maps at rest areas along the way and had a set destination each night, but boy, oh boy, did we have some adventures along the way! There were wrong turns, winding mountain roads, a city with only one way streets, a bout of altitude sickness and food poisoning, and general road-weariness.

Despite all the hang ups I never worried that we wouldn't make it to our final destinations. I didn’t worry, because a more experienced traveler, someone I loved and trusted, and someone I believed had my best interest at heart, had charted our course. I knew that no matter what the day before us held we’d end it at the exact place we were supposed to be, and we did.

I don’t know about you, but most days I don’t feel like the best candidate for this “drive” called life! Every day brings uncharted territory, and the skills I have don’t always match up to what’s required of me. Despite the wrong turns and general weariness, I never worry that I won’t end up where I’m supposed to be at the end of each day. I know the all-knowing God, whom I love and trust, and who has my best interest at heart, has already charted my course. 

Living in The Way of Wisdom doesn’t mean we’ll never get lost, find ourselves on a winding mountain road in the middle of nowhere, or in high stress must-make-a-decision-right-now kind of situations. It means we’ll travel the whole way with the One who charted our course to begin with! We thank you, God, for guiding us through all of life. PS thank you also for GPS! :) Amen and amen.

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The Blessed Way

Brian and Kathy Emmet

Blessed is the man …” (Psalm 1:1)

How does one become the kind of man or woman described in Psalm 1?  A person who avoids the way of the ungodly, sinful and mockers and who instead lives a life that is characterized by deep rootedness in God and great fruitfulness for God?

This psalm is a classic example of the “two ways” tradition of wisdom popular throughout the ancient world and in Scripture.  There are just two ways to live, only two paths to follow: the way of wisdom and of folly, of righteousness and of wickedness, of life and of death.  Those who walk in “the good way” live and prosper; those who don’t, perish.

To our modern ears, this can sound like counsel to “make better choices,” to be true to your “inner spiritual core,” to pursue happiness as you define it rather than submitting to someone else’s definition of happiness.  The foundational assumption is that we all have the capacity to “do the right thing,” we just need to try harder to do better.

But what if Psalm 1 is Old Testament preparation for the Good News of Jesus Christ?  What if the one pronounced “blessed” by Psalm 1 isn’t you or me at our trying-harder best?  What if the one and only “blessed” man is Jesus the Messiah?  “Well, that’s great for Jesus,” you might respond, “but where does it leave me, leave us?”

It leaves us at the critical fork in the road of life.  Jesus didn’t speak in terms of two ways, he said he was The Way.  He is the one who did not walk in the counsel of the ungodly, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of mockers; we ourselves are the ungodly, the sinners and the mockers!  Our recent experiences of Good Friday and Easter make exactly this point.  Jesus is the planted and rooted one; we are the tumbleweeds.  Jesus alone is The Fruitful One; so much of what we produce can be sour and bitter and poisonous.

So the Blessed Way of Psalm 1 is not found by us trying harder to be better, it is found only in surrendering, completely and unconditionally, to Jesus the Way, Jesus the only Righteous One, Jesus the Blessed One who freely and generously blesses.

Jesus, the one who is able by the power of his resurrection to make us into the kind of person he already is.

Jesus is The Way.  The only way there really ever was, is or will be.

It’s great to have a confident approach to life – but how much of your confidence rests in your ability to get yourself where you want to go, and how much rests in Jesus and in his ability to get you where he wants you to be?  What might a more Jesus-confident you look like, act like?