A Wrong Turn

When I was pastoring a church down in Tampa Bay, Florida, I had a 12:30 lunch appointment with someone from the church. The location for the lunch appointment was about twelve minutes from the church on a street called Busch, which was near another street called Armenia. So at about 12:15 I headed out the door of the church to get to the meeting on time.

Having lived there for less than a year, I was still a bit unfamiliar with the area. I knew Armenia was just up the road off Fletcher, and I knew Busch was just south of Fletcher by a couple of miles. I climbed into my vehicle for a quick twelve-minute drive. Thirty-five minutes later!!!! I had taken the wrong road.

I had sinned. Well, maybe I should say, what I had done is demonstrated one of the Bible’s definition of sin. You see, one of the ways the Bible defines sin is to go the wrong way. It is when you have taken the wrong road to accomplish a right relationship with God. Proverbs 19:23 gives us an interesting insight into this concept.

Also it is not good for a soul to be without knowledge,

And he SINS who hastens with his feet.

Do you see the word sins? It means to go the wrong way. You have taken the wrong road to accomplish a right relationship with God. There is a correct way in which to go, or get to God. And there is a wrong way.

Do you remember Cain? You can find him way back in the book of Genesis. He is best know for killing his brother Able. And coming to God in the wrong way was Cain’s problem. He did not come to God in the prescribed way. Perhaps he was in a hurry. Perhaps he was jealous. Perhaps he was arrogant. We don’t know for sure what he was feeling, but we do know that it was the wrong way to come to God.

In our daily living it is important that we don’t just rush ahead with the notion that we’ve got it all figured out. Not taking the time to check in with God to see what He thinks. The end result of that kind of living will find us traveling down roads we never intended to drive.

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