a better way

The following article was written to a group of inmates in Creek County jail in Oklahoma in 1996.

And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness. The unclean will not journey on it; it will be for those who walk in that Way; wicked fools will not go about on it. No lion will be there, nor will any ferocious beast get up on it; they will not be found there. But only the redeemed will walk there.(Isaiah 35:8-9)

There was a poet named Robert Frost who wrote a poem about two roads.  One road was well-traveled -- a lot of people had gone down that road.  But the other road was less well-traveled -- you could tell not many people went there.

The writer was proud of the fact that he hadn't followed the crowd: he had gone on the road less traveled and was the better for it.

People's lives are like that.  It is easy to go with your crowd.  If the crowd decides to go out and get drunk and rape a girl, or rob a store, or beat up someone, chances are high you'll go along with them.  It's too easy to do so.  To go against the crowd is really hard for anyone.

The hard thing to do is to take the right road.  Even though the great majority of the United States have never been in jail, the great majority of your crowd probably has.  So to go against them is take the road in your life that is less traveled.

Other people may tromp that road to death, but to you, it is sure a different road.

The reason you've never traveled that road is not because it is so weird a road, but it is because you are weak.  Your crowd does something, so you do it too.

Of course, your crowd is not in jail with you.  You got stuck with that by yourself.  The only road you go on is a pretty sorry and lonely road.  And with your record in life, you're going to keep tromping that lousy road until you die, which will probably be in prison.

How do you change?  God can show you a better road, one that to you is a great road.  It's so good if for no other reason than that it is new and doesn't end up in jail. It ends up with you happy in life with a family and a job and dying old with loved ones around you.

That road is the road of grace and love and the road of forgiveness in Jesus Christ.  He will free you from that sorry road you've been on and show you a better way.

You ask him into your heart and give him control of your life and you'll end up on a good road, a happy road, that road Isaiah talks about .

That road is one fine place to be. And you can be there if you'll let Jesus take you there.  He loves you.