"Mama! There are flashing red lights behind us!" hollered our three young sons.
By the time I had the car stopped (right in front of our house), the boys had jumped out of the car to greet this young police officer. He and the boys exchanged friendly greetings, while I sat shaking behind the wheel.
"Ma'am, may I see your driver's license?" he asked. I fumbled around looking for the proper card in my purse, then shuffled through the papers in the glove compartment looking for the insurance verification card. My head was pounding out thoughts like, "I didn't see this officer by that corner! I hardly ever do this and now to get caught! I wish I hadn't tried to take a short cut! All the neighbors are watching! I was almost home!"
The boys were telling the officer how the youngest had fallen out of a shopping cart that day and had received an ugly blackish-blue bump on his forehead---another reason why I had such a headache. I gave the boys the house key and sent them home. I didn't think this officer needed to hear all the family news.
The officer looked up from his clipboard. "Ma'am, you do know this is a One-Way street?"
I nodded.
"You did realize you were going the wrong way?"
I nodded.
He gave me a ticket.
When I appeared in court two weeks later, I noticed that the judge often asked the defendant, "How often do you travel on this road? Do you not notice the street signs that are posted for drivers on this road?" If the person traveled that road frequently, the judge frowned and gave a heavier fine. When it came my turn, I knew I was in trouble. I hoped he wouldn't ask me how often I traveled this road but he didn't need to. My address told him how often. We were both polite to each other but I left determined to never again go down this street the wrong way!
Since then, whenever I see a car heading south on this northbound street, I have sudden flashbacks of red lights and a siren. I feel this need to call out, "You're going the wrong way! Turn around! It's expensive to go the wrong way down this street!"
Even more urgently, I feel the need to call out to the lost souls traveling the wrong way down life's road. There is only ONE WAY to heaven. Do not go away from the cross instead of towards it. Turn around. Listen to Jesus, "...Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." Mark 8:34. The flesh wants the easy way out. The devil causes the wrong way to look easier and appealing to the flesh. Is it profitable? "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" Mark 8:36.
No, there is only heartache, sorrow and guilt. "...The way of transgressors is hard." Proverbs 13:15. One song says, "The wages of sin is death and woe, and bitter remorse; I've found it so. Bitter...bitter...Bitter remorse and woe." Sin on earth brings bitterness but after death it is eternal separation from God and all that is good. Several times Jesus spoke about the judgment and that "there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." (Matthew 13:42, 50.)
Jesus has shown us the way. "I am the way, the truth, and the life, no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.... If ye love me, keep my commandments...the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." (John 14:4-26.) The Lord's way often takes more time and patience, more effort, and grinds against the flesh, but His way leads to eternal life.
We only travel down life's road one time. When we are obedient to the Law of God, there is no guilt, shame, nor fear in our hearts. The eternal cost for a soul to travel the wrong way is fatal destruction. [ The End ]