Turn Right onto the Dead End

That’s what she told me, my granddaughter, as we were snaking up the hill to her house…

Turn right on the Dead End road!

Dead End Road. Not a dead-end existence or life, but it did get me to thinking. How many times have we followed instructions that, if we were paying attention, would have been directly into a dead-end direction? I’m thinking about relationships, careers, relocations, studies, degrees, philosophies, religion… in fact, just about anything you could think about could be a turn onto a dead-end path.

There are a lot of Dead-End’s out there.

I’ve hit a few in my life, and were it not for some twinge of awareness I might have simply stayed in the dead-end place and not gone anywhere productive!

Back in the mid-80s’, I was taking a drive down a gravel road on the Kenai Penisula in Alaska. The sign said, “Dead End” but I was sure there would be a turn-around just ahead, so I kept driving – my parent’s 33 foot Winnebago! After backing up for over a mile, I finally turned the rig around but had to let someone else drive because of a crick in my neck!

Lesson Learned! Consider your mobility before you consider the path. They are not always equal to the task of each other! Know what you are driving before taking the path that may not be very kind to you!

Here’s my thought today. We base much of how we live on something that went before us – parents, country, culture, you name it. You are probably not the first to trip down this pathway! The collector of the psalms, either as the author or compiler, opened his songbook with these words.

Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,
Nor stands in the path of sinners,
Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;
But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
He shall be like a tree Planted by the rivers of water,
That brings forth its fruit in its season,
Whose leaf also shall not wither;
And whatever he does shall prosper.
The ungodly are not so,
But are like the chaff which the wind drives away.
Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment,
Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
For the LORD knows the way of the righteous,
But the way of the ungodly shall perish.
(Psalms 1:1-6 NKJV)

Notice something insightful. He opens the entire book with the focus on a person who is not on a dead-end path! Blessed. Delight in the Law. Mediates. Planted Tree. Fruit. A leaf that does not wither. Prosper!

But then he identifies the dead-end life. Ungodly. Chaff. Judgment and not in the congregation of the righteous. Perishes with unattainable goals or valuable destination!

In fact, The Message “translation” reads like this:

How well God must like you—
you don’t hang out at Sin Saloon,
you don’t slink along Dead-End Road,
you don’t go to Smart-Mouth College.
Instead you thrill to GOD’s Word,
you chew on Scripture day and night.
You’re a tree replanted in Eden,
bearing fresh fruit every month,
Never dropping a leaf, always in blossom.
You’re not at all like the wicked,
who are mere windblown dust—
Without defense in court,
unfit company for innocent people.
GOD charts the road you take.
The road they take is Skid Row.
(Psalms 1:1-6 MSG)

I cannot build my theology on this translation, but I sure like the way it reads! It uses words and phrases that are like common terms in this modern life! But notice what this translation says:

God charts the road you take!

There are many examples of folks we put on a pedestal who choose the words of another, “Turn right on the dead-end road.” You can pattern their life and end up just like them. Think Jezebel. Delilah. Samson. Or, you can make better choices even from those who failed along their path. David. Prodigal. Moses. Abraham.

It all depends on you! Let God Chart Your Path? Or listen to the voice of another, “Turn right on the Dead End road!”