Two Exits Too Far

 

Two Exits Too Far

It's easy to get off track and much harder to get back on. Sometimes, we are called to be the one to point the way back to the road to the wanderer. This is from June 22, 2010 as I drove to Ben and Courtney's wedding. 

It had to happen. I made it to Henryetta, Oklahoma for the wedding with no problem, following my printed MapQuest directions: 610 to I45 to US 75N to Indian Nation Turnpike into Henryetta. I had reverse directions printed but I did not look at them when I left Henryetta on Sunday afternoon. I should have. I guided my Honda Fit onto the Indian Nation Turnpike and stopped to pay at the one toll booth just like I did on the way up. But then, there was a second toll booth and a third. By #3, I knew I was in trouble. I asked the lady in the booth if I was on the way to Dallas by way of US 75 S. She told me I had missed the exit and my heart sank. I could see myself having to retrace my steps PLUS repay the tolls to get back to the correct exit. But the Lord must have sent this toll worker to rescue me. She told me I could simply get off at the next exit, only one hundred yards away, drive the thirty-one miles to the town of Atoka by way of State Highway 3 and reacquire 75S there. She was so reassuring and she even gave me a road map of the Great State Of Oklahoma! I thanked her profusely and began the corrective measures. Sure enough, thirty one miles later, I came to find Atoka and US 75 S and I was safe on my way home to Houston.

Do you ever feel you've lost your way and aren't sure how to get back on track? That's where I was on the Indian Nation Turnpike two days ago. I sort of knew where I was but I knew where I was wasn't where I needed to be and I required a guiding hand. Undoubtedly, the woman in the toll booth deals with dilemmas like mine on a daily basis but she took an interest in me and showed me what I could not see. I owe this lady I will never see again. In life, someone has probably blessed as that lady blessed me. Sometimes, we need somebody to tell us we're lost and nudge us back in the right direction. We can be the nudger ourselves although at times we tend to be more of the hammer. There's a reward, too, for guiding the wayward soul. James tells us in chapter 5, verses 19 and twenty that,
'My brothers, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring him back, remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save him from death and cover over a multitude of sins.'
Don't we all know Christians who have left the straight and narrow and are reduced to wandering in the religious wasteland? They may be driving up to your spiritual toll booth at any moment, unannounced. Forty eight hours ago, that Oklahoma lady was prepared for me. Who am I prepared for?

Applicable quote of the day:
"Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.''
Henry David Thoreau

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1