Life is a Highway

“And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness. The unclean will not journey on it; it will be for those who walk in that Way; wicked fools will not go about on it.”
Isaiah 35:8

Perhaps it was the early morning bike ride or preparations for a trip that had me thinking about roads and highways. As I thought about that, I thought I remembered a song called “Life is a Highway.” Turns out it is a song by Rascal Flatts. One of the verses says: “There was a distance between you and I. A misunderstanding once, but now we look it in the eye.” Of the course the song is meant to be a love song, but these words could be applied to the relationship we have with the Lord.

This week’s passage from the prophet Isaiah comes from a poem or song written about the time that was coming when God’s people would be redeemed and would journey home after being exiled. The journey on this particular highway would be joy filled and safe. Back in the day only the very wealthy and powerful traveled in “style” and perhaps relative safety. For everyone else even a “short” trip, never mind a long journey, was difficult and filled with danger. Back to Isaiah, you see the people had put distance between themselves and their God by the way they were living. For their efforts they ended up on a highway that led somewhere they didn’t want to be. God had no intention of leaving them there, He just wanted them to draw near, where they could see eye to eye once again. The Hebrew word translated as highway in this passage can also mean “way of life” - God, wants us to have a way of life that will allow us to stay on His “Way of Holiness” even when the going of this life gets tough. 

The opening verse of the Rascal Flatts song says: Life’s like a road that you travel on when there’s one day here and the next day gone. Sometimes you bend, sometimes you stand, and sometimes you turn your back to the wind.” Jesus wants us to travel the highway of life in such a way that we can stand and not break when traveling gets tough. 

So how are you traveling?

A Prayer
Father - there are so many roads and highways that we can travel on in this world. When we don’t like where we are heading sometimes we even go off road. Help us to travel on the highway you have prepared for us, that allows us to see eye to eye with You and to stand when the going gets tough. Thank you that Your Son makes the way for us to live in the Way. In the name Jesus, who constructed the Way of Holiness with a wooden cross, we pray - Amen.