Lead Me In The Way Everlasting

¹“Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” (Psalms 139:23-24). I imagine that, if we are being completely truthful, if God searched us and attempted to know and to try our hearts and our thoughts, He would most likely find some wicked ways in all of us. But that isn’t the whole story, is it? Because, in addition to all of the wicked ways leading into and out of our hearts and minds, there is one other way. The Everlasting Way. The Psalmist did not plead with the Lord to uproot or pave over or rope off all of the wicked ways. He asked for the Lord’s help to lead him in the way everlasting. We can be following our Savior Jesus Christ in the way everlasting and still at the same time have all kinds of wicked ways offering to divert us from the way everlasting. Look, sometimes we’re out on some highway in the middle of nowhere with not another way in sight. But sometimes we’re trying to navigate through some labyrinth of streets with all kinds of forks and slight lefts and slight rights and overpasses and underpasses and bridges and tunnels and lanes that go one way in the morning and a different way in the afternoon. It doesn’t make us better than other people if we don’t see another wicked way for a country mile or more, and it doesn’t make us worse if our wicked ways are laid out on top of each other so thickly that the map looks like it’s covered in spiderwebs. The important thing is that if we will allow the Lord to lead us, we can stay on the Way Everlasting. If we are trying our best to stick to the whispered instructions of the Holy Ghost to go straight or turn this way or that and even so we still sometimes get confused and turn too early or too late and wind up leaving the Way Everlasting for some other way, all we have to do is not panic or beat ourselves up but simply give heed to our spiritual GPS and follow the instructions to take the next available U-turn or follow any other suitable sequence that will get us back onto the Way Everlasting as quickly as possible. As long as we continue to follow Christ back to the Way Everlasting, it doesn’t matter if we’ve got a handful or hundreds of wicked ways trying to distract us. Eventually all of those other wicked ways will dwindle and disappear, leaving only the Way Everlasting.