Pr. 16:17: “The highway of the upright is to depart from evil; He who keeps his way preserves his soul.”
This verse reminds me of driving home to our new house at night.
In Oct., we bought a new home with a few acres. It’s so far out in the country that my father jokes that when we visits he needs to stop at a hotel on the way to spend the night because it’s such a long journey. ha! Not only that, but once you finally get to our road, our house is a mile down at the dead-end.
Last night I had to go to the ‘big city’ to pick up some new rabbits for my kids. I was supposed to be there at 5:30, but didn’t take in to account all the after-work traffic. I was stuck in long traffic lines 3 separate times. Wow! I do Not miss that. I inched along in town, survived the somewhat terrifying interstate/exiting traffic, and headed back towards the country.
My favorite thing about driving home is that as my journey continues, less and less cars are with me. As I go, the cars fall away. They turn off on other roads, until finally, my car is the only one on the road. I literally sighed with relief last night once I was free from all those cars.
This verse says that the highway of the upright is to depart from evil. A lot of times when we are living lives of sin, we are surrounded by people. There is a lot going on around us. We get caught up in the activities all around us. There is a terrifying, yet exciting feeling of being surrounded by others like us; and sometimes we comfort ourselves with the justifications that we clearly aren’t the only ones doing it.
The Bible tells; however, that to preserve our soul, we must keep our way. This is where I’m reminded of the part where I’m headed out-of-town. Once we’ve made our decision to follow God’s path, we need to keep on that path. All the crowd will fall away. At this point, others will be turning off on other roads. Some may come a little ways with us, but then change their minds and do a u-turn. We may even lose some of our closest friends. We may find that we are the only one we know that is on that road.
What are doing; however, is preserving our soul. We are choosing to trust and follow God. And we will be rewarded in heaven.
Now, I’d be remiss if I didn’t remind us all that we are not actually alone. Not only does God never leave us or forsake us, but there are plenty of people who have also chosen God’s way. It does us good to go to church and meet with others of like mind. With their help, we can be encouraged and then we can go out and show the lost a new way.
Keep on the way,
jamie
considering the word 