Happiness on a One Way Street

I helped teach all six of our children to drive.  The scariest thing at the start of driving is facing oncoming traffic.  You don’t want to run off the shoulder and you don’t want to have a head on collision.  The speed slows down and the steering wheel is held a little more tightly until the crisis of meeting that other car is past.  Driving on a one way street is a lot easier and comfortable.  God wants us to drive our lives on a one way street. 

Psalm 119:2 says, “Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, who seek Him with the whole heart!”  Single mindedness is not a sinful trait if it is directed at living with Christ as Lord of our life.  Paul wrote to the Philippians Phil. 3:13, “but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before.” (KJV)  Notice the singularity of his mind.  “This ONE thing” is how he described his life motive.  He wasn’t running randomly in search of a purpose or in pursuit of a goal.  He was focused on one purpose and one goal.  He wanted to know Christ better and serve Him ever more faithfully.  He wanted to make Christ the very center of His life.  All other items in his life were peripheral.  Christ was the consuming passion. 

That is driving on a one way street.  That doesn’t mean Paul didn’t have friends or other work to do. He was a tent maker by trade and often found himself engaged as such.  He speaks highly of the relationships he had with others.  He wasn’t an isolated monk.  He was very much an engaged person, but his engagement always was focused on living for Christ.  He said in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.”  He was driving down Christ First Street and it was a one way all the way for Paul.  We never hear him complain or be sad or distressed on this street.  He was fulfilled and had a life characterized by true joy and contentment.  Paul was a happy man.

Frances Havergal wrote the stirring hymn “True Hearted, Whole Hearted”.  She calls for all of Christ’s followers to live for Him with a whole heart, just like the psalmist said would bring happiness. “Truehearted, wholehearted! Fullest allegiance yielding hence-forth to our glorious king! Valiant endeavor and loving obedience freely and joyously now would we bring.”  She proclaimed that such a road, when taken, would let us joyously sing.  There is indeed happiness driving on a one way street.  

 

Visit my website at www.davidccraig.net for inspiring Christian books.  Coming this month is my newest book Taking Care of Joe.  This is the story of a caregiver for an Alzheimer’s patient.  See how God adds His grace in the face of this horrible disease and how living a life of love is living a life NOT interrupted.  You may also find some of my selected daily devotions at FEBC.org.  FEBC is a vital missionary outreach to many countries that are closed to traditional missionary work.