Wrong Path

Romans 9:31

Matthew 7:13-14

When you're on the wrong path, the quickest way to your destination is to turn around and get back onto the right path. Those who insist on staying on the wrong path will never reach the destination they are seeking. How often did one of the prophets repeat to the Israelites that they should change their hearts, that the Lord was seeking from them an attitude rather than a monotonous series of actions (Hos 6:6)? Yet still it's clear from both Jesus' words and Paul's that the Jews of the first century were focused almost entirely on their actions rather than their attitudes. What is criticism worth, however, if we don't turn it back on ourselves to examine our lives and what lessons we might learn? Personally, I would much rather find a new route to my destination and waste incredible amounts of time in the process than to admit to the world that I was wrong and turn back to the right path. That might work when making my way to a grocery store in a new town, but it won't help in my spiritual life where there is only one path (Jn 14:6). If I wasted my entire life being too stubborn to turn around, I will not find the destination I seek. Only by being humble enough to turn around when God calls me back to His way will I successfully by able to follow Him faithfully. Only then can I describe myself as being any different from the Israelites who sought righteousness and never attained it.