On the morning of New Year’s Eve, our family took a walk along the footpath adjacent to our local library. The temperatures have been on the colder side at the start of winter, which have kept us indoors and on devices more than we would like. But we recently purposed to break free from our digital comforts and get back to some analog activities, some “old paths” to refresh us before the New Year arrives.
We breathed crisp air, enjoyed the landscape, and talked of lighter things. We realized that we had been “blind while enjoying the sunlight… deaf to all things spiritual, with voices all around… [understanding] many things, but had no knowledge of thy ways.” (1) The clarity received from plodding through God’s creation instead of idling through Google’s images was the terrain to strengthen our souls. Whether we consciously called these our “resolutions,” our family has resolved to faithfully meet the newness of the calendar with some oldness of timeless truths.
Old Paths, Timeless Truths
For the past several months, in the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, there are the rhythms of speeding up (mostly for commercial reasons) and slowing down (as a retreat from all of it). Haste is often wasted when what we need is to pause, be still, and understand our place in this world. Thanksgiving and Christmas give us those necessary pauses, as we gather with loved ones for the purposes of gratitude and glorifying God for sending His Son into the world to save us from our sins.
Long before those pauses, the prophet Jeremiah in the Old Testament warned about God’s coming judgment and that we ought to fear (obey) Him. In the midst of this, a choice has to be made… a path has to be taken. Jeremiah writes:
Thus says the LORD: Stand in the ways and see, And ask for the old paths, where the good way is, And walk in it; Then you will find rest for your souls. – Jeremiah 6:16
At the Crossroads
The Lord is first telling us to stop and look around. Take inventory. Make an honest assessment of your current state of affairs.
Perhaps a crossroads is what you see. Which way will you go? The Lord tells us next to “ask for the old paths, where the good way is.” Through prayer and the leading of the Holy Spirit, we are called to follow the well-worn and established path marked out by the Word of God… Not the current trend of the cultural catalog.
Once the good way is known, now walk in it. Our lives are meant to be marked by plodding progress. Faithfulness in sound doctrine, wisdom, and holiness. The new shiny thing of the world cannot promise a good way where you will find rest. Instead, the world and its trappings continue to broaden its offerings, substituting the true, wise, and beautiful for the false, foolish, and artificial.
Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. – Matthew 7:13-14
Go the Good Way
As Christians in a post-Christian world, we can learn from the past without living in it. The biblical path was created before us, and it will surely remain after us. It is not an easy road, but it is the right one, where the good way is, where we find rest for our souls.
We learn that remaining faithful to the old path is progress. When Joshua instructed the people of Israel to fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and truth, and put away their idols, he did not spectate but blazed the trail for them … “Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve … But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD” (Joshua 24:14-15).
Consider the short story, “A Worn Path,” by Pulitzer-prize-winning author Eudora Welty. The account of grandmother Phoenix Jackson as she heads from her home on foot into town to retrieve medicine for her grandson shows us the importance of persevering on the path. “Old Phoenix would’ve been lost if she had not distrusted her eyesight and depended on her feet to know where to take her.” (2)
This sentence speaks to the importance of the path (feet) as well as the destination (eyesight) … A realization that our human limitations are natural and useful opportunities to pause, taking in the world around us, from nature, smells, people, and provision (both asked for and unexpected charity). Even the obstacles on the path do not hinder progress. The path is perseverance ordained by God.
Pursue, Remain, Rest
As theologian and commentator Phillip Graham Ryken writes, “Staying on track in life means going down the Biblical path.” (3) This timeless path has been traversed by multitudes of disciples committed to Christ and His Word. Consider these steps:
- Pursue sound doctrine. Pursue rich theology. Learn about the history of the church. “Other Christians have walked down the ancient path of the Bible before us, and they can show us the way.” (4) There is wisdom and safety in these guideposts; they do not stray toward new directions of disillusionment. “Novelty is the enemy of orthodoxy.” (5)
If the church substitutes entertainment for worship or sacrifices the gospel for so-called “gospel issues,” contend earnestly for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 3).
If the culture comprises on ethical issues, do not tone down the glorious gospel. Be like Paul in Athens and reason with people (daily if necessary) with Christ’s criteria.
If you personally ponder God’s will for your life (who doesn’t?), pay close attention to yourself and your teaching. What have you been listening to? What have you been watching? Who is discipling you (in person and online)? Persevere in the things that ensure your salvation (1 Timothy 4:16).
- Remain in the Word! Psalm 119 is filled with reasons to walk the path of God’s precepts. The psalmist encourages us…
“I will run the course of Your commandments, For You shall enlarge my heart” (v. 32).
“Make me walk in the path of Your commandments, For I delight in it” (v. 35).
“Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path” (v. 105).
“Direct my steps by Your word, And let no iniquity have dominion over me” (v. 133). Rest in the loving arms of Jesus, knowing that when we walk His path (even through heavy labor)… When we come to Him, we will find rest for our souls because He gives us rest. In our current age of digital social currency, the angst we feel of never measuring up, never arriving… Oh, how we want rest. Pursue the old path, like our protagonist in Pilgrim’s Progress , who desires to reach the Celestial City. Will you remain so that you can really rest?
Jesus: Our True Path and the Good Way
Whether at year’s end or in new morning mercies, remember that “Those who seek the ancient path and the good way are seeking for Jesus Christ.”(6) Not only is Jesus the good way, He is the best way, and He is the only way. “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).If you find yourself at a crossroads today or in the future… Consider your surroundings, get your bearings, and seek out the old path of treasured truth found in the wisdom of God’s Word. Remember those saints who helped us get here. And above all, pursue Jesus Christ, the “blessed Pilot of my future as of my past.” (7)
End Notes
1 Arthur Bennett, ed. “The Great Discovery,” in The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions(Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 2011).
2 Eudora Welty, “A Worn Path,” in The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty (New York, NY: Mariner Books, 2019).
3 Phillip Graham Ryken, Jeremiah and Lamentations: From Sorrow to Hope (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2001), 111.
4 Ibid., 112.
5 Ibid., 113.
6 Ibid.7 Bennett, “Year’s End,” in The Valley of Vision.
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