Our Life's Journey

Each of us is on a journey. This journey began when we were born, and it will end when we die. This means that we can point out when our journey began, but not the moment of our journey's end. For one the journey is of longer duration than for another. It is something that is determined by God.

On this journey we can experience all kinds of things. The one seemingly has an easier journey than another. It is sometimes said, “His way is prosperous, a path of roses.” However, it often becomes evident that the reality is different. The destination of the journey to which we are traveling is dependent upon the way we go. Scripture speaks of the way of life and the way of death, of a broad way and a narrow way. The broad way ends in eternal death; the narrow way leads to the place of eternal salvation.

Young and old, upon which way are you walking? To where are you journeying? That is a most serious and important question for your life. We may not lay such questions aside. By nature we are traveling upon the broad way. This is a dreadful matter, for this way leads us further from God. This way goes in the opposite direction from God, but it was upon this way that we were born.

The apostle tells us that these travelers are alienated from the life of God, strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world. It is upon that way that we find death, the missing of God and communion with God. Oh, how sad is the condition of the person who travels upon that way. It is a broad way; you can walk in the middle of the way as do brutish, ungodly persons and those who do not desire to know about God, but you can also walk on the grassy shoulder. That is where we especially find the pious people, the church people. They perhaps shake their heads about the wickedness that takes place in the middle of the way, but in the meantime they travel in the same direction.

Have you ever paid attention to this? Has this already become your need? Has the pleading cry been born in your life that the Lord would bring you off this way? Oh, beseech Him to bring you from this broad way. Ask that the broad way may lose its glamour. By nature we do not find the broad way so bad, for we feel at home there. Ultimately we desire nothing different. Sometimes our consciences can trouble us and we stand still for a moment, but that is usually quickly past and we continue our journey.

Saul of Tarsus also felt comfortable on that way. He even felt that this was the way unto salvation, that is, until that was fulfilled which we read in our text. That is a wonder which must also take place in our lives. A meeting, an encounter, must take place, and then we can go no further. The Lord is free in His leading and work. It is not of concern how this meeting takes place, but that it does take place. The ways of the Lord are varied, but I must learn how great my sins and miseries are, how I may be delivered from all my sins, and how I shall express my gratitude to God for such deliverance.

These matters Saul learned, but so also did Timothy, Simon Peter, Lydia, and the jailor. In the lives of all of us it must be true that, as he or she journeyed, it took place. True conversion is necessary, a transplanting from Adam and an implanting in Christ. We must be brought to a standstill and turned around. God the Holy Ghost is the Author of this wonder. Oh, if this blessed encounter with the Prince of life takes place, we are placed upon the narrow way which leads to heaven. It is a way which leads to God and to His communion.

Then our hearts are opened as was the heart of Lydia, our wills are inclined as with Saul, and our lives are turned unto God as with Manasseh. Indeed, then God again receives a place. The world then loses its splendor, sin is seen in its God-dishonoring character, and the desires are turned around. There comes a new love for God, for His Word, His day, His people, His ordinances. Oh, then we bewail our guilt and foolishness, and then true humility is born in the heart. Then our journey receives another direction.

That in which we found delight becomes a heavy burden. That for which we had no desire becomes a fervent and deep longing. Indeed, everything becomes different. The view of the world changes, the purpose of our lives is altered. There come other friendships, other interests, other yearnings. No, such a traveler does not become pious, but becomes true. God makes His people honest. “I acknowledged my sin unto Thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid.” The experience of guilt and the lamenting of guilt take place.

Come, upon which way are you traveling? To what is your heart drawn? Has the meeting with the Prince of life already taken place in your life? Have you already lost the battle before God? Have you already realized who you actually are: a sinner, that is, a misser of the mark? Our journey is not yet finished. The time of our journey is still called the time of grace. Oh, do not seek it any longer in the world, upon the broad way, but plead for this blessed meeting of which our text speaks. It does not remain without its consequences; the path of sin may then, by grace, be forsaken, and the prayer is born:

Turn Thou my eyes from vanity,
And cause me in Thy ways to tread;
O let Thy servant prove Thy Word
And thus to godly fear be led.

— Rev. B. van der Heiden

(Rev. Van der Heiden serves the congregation of Alblasserdam, the Netherlands.)

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