We're On The Same Road

From a human standpoint, we all walk the same road. If the road is life, then the road is the road.

However, from a spiritual viewpoint there are two distinctly different roads leading in different directions. The wide road is heavily traveled and ends in destruction. The narrow road is sparsely traveled and ends in life.

The question is how do we walk the road? Jesus said that two people can sleep in the same bed -- yet one is saved, the other lost. Two people can attend the same church -- yet one goes home saved, the other is lost. Two people can recite the same creed, give sacrificially, keep the same rules, go through the same rituals -- yet one knows God, the other does not.

How can this happen? It happens because it matters how we walk the road.

In his story, "The Good Neighbor," Jesus talked about a road between Jericho and Jerusalem. Five different people traveled that road. The first person was a innocent traveler who was robbed, beaten, and left for dead. The second the thug or thugs who attacked the man. The third a priest who looked the other way and kept walking. Followed by a Levite who mimicked the priest's actions. The last man, a half-breed, stopped and had mercy on the victim.

Five people walked the same road. What made the difference? It wasn't the road. The difference was how each person walked the road. The traveler was minding his own business. The robber was on the prowl. The priest and the Levite were too pious, too proud, too callus, too indifferent, and too afraid to get involved. Yet the Samaritan -- a social-religious outsider -- showed Papa-God's mercy.

Five people walked the same road, only one demonstrated salvation-mercy.

How do you walk the road?