why you had to go down the wrong road

A friend told me a story his pastor shared, and I've been thinking about it a lot lately:

A father and son planned a road trip across the desert. This trip happened before cell phones, GPS devices, and modern technology that makes traveling easy, and the risk of getting lost very, very low.

Armed with just a map and a full tank of gas, the father and son began their trip.

After a couple of hours on the road, they arrived at a fork in the road—a fork that wasn’t on their map. Confused by the split in the road they didn’t anticipate having to navigate, the father and son decided to pray for guidance on which direction they should go. Rather than guess and run the risk of guessing wrong and running out of gas in the middle of the desert, they sought an answer from God.

The two took some time to pray alone and ask for direction. When they came back together, they shared that God had told them to take the road on the right. Since they both felt called to go down the road on the right, they felt confident about moving forward and didn’t second guess their decision. To their surprise, after driving for a little while, the road they were on turned into a dead end.

The road God had told them both to go down was a dead end.

Confused, they turned back and headed toward the fork in the road to take the road on the left. They didn’t talk on the return drive, both trying to figure out why they were sent down the “wrong” path. It was getting late when they eventually made it back to the fork and headed down the left road, and the father was beginning to pay attention to the amount of gas left. He hoped they’d make it to the next town to fill up because it had become too dark and cool to have to walk to get gas, but he didn’t know where the next town was since his map was obviously not up to date.

The drive continued, and the son noticed they were getting low on gas. They had been on the road on the left longer than on the road on the right, and it seemed as if they were not going to find the next town in time.

Just as they began to discuss their plans for when they would run out of gas, the father finally saw a faint light in the distance—the town was just ahead of them.

Then, the father understood why they were sent down the road on the right first–the “wrong” road. He shared with his son that God had sent them down the wrong road so that when they were on the right road, they would know without any doubt that they were traveling in the right direction. Had they not already traveled down the road on the right, they probably would have questioned their decision to go left and turned back to try the road on the right, which would have guaranteed they’d run out of gas and be stuck in the desert for the night.

The father and son made it to the town, filled up the tank, and continued their trip.

Sometimes, you must travel down the wrong road to know when you are finally on the right one.

See you tomorrow and keep pursuing,

JC