When the “Wrong” Way Proves to be Right

Mario Kart has been one of the most loved video games for decades. It’s created lots of laughs, late nights, and the occasional family fight when things got too heated. But one thing is clear; this game has stood the test of time. And that’s due to the exhilarating yet straightforward mission. Be the first to cross the finish line; by any means necessary.

There aren’t many things more satisfying than causing your friend or sibling to spin out just before they cross the finish line, leaving you just enough time to pass them and finish in first place. Winning these races was so satisfying in part due to their unique courses. Some of these courses require incredible skill and focus just to stay on the track. But if you ever got twisted around and started going down the road backward, you’d get the infamous “Wrong Way” icon pop up in the center of your screen. When you went in the wrong direction, it was there to inform you of your mistake and let you know that it was time to turn around. But what if the “wrong” way was the right way all along?

As a society, we’ve created many norms that we hardly pay attention to in our daily lives. We drive on the right side of the road, we wear pants in public, and we don’t invade strangers’ personal space. All of these things are social norms we live by every day, and if we were to break these social norms, we’d get a lot of “wrong way” looks. Many of these social norms are good for us; they keep us safe and let us function in an orderly way. But not all of them are good. Some of them keep us from living the life we should. Usually, it takes a brave man or woman to push against these wrong norms to change the way people think. Throughout history, we’ve seen people like Christopher Columbus, Marie Curie, Martin Luther King Jr, and many others who were willing to be laughed at, mocked, or even hated for trying to reshape the way society thought. They chose to walk the “wrong” way to prove it was the right thing to do.

There are countless examples of people who sought to change society, but nobody sought to change the world as much as Jesus. He was always challenging the way people thought and behaved. He taught in mysterious parables that left people baffled. He went against standard social norms that, frankly, made people upset. But, Jesus wasn’t just some weird guy that didn’t like these norms; he had a mission. His mission was to get people to understand that they had created wrongful social practices through their ignorance and lack of communication with God. The ways they created, and they saw as right, weren’t right at all. And if we aren’t careful, we can do the same thing. We can let the social norms around us cloud the direction God has placed in our life. Not all social norms are harmful, but it is important to inspect every norm with a divine direction lens.

Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths”.

To have the right norms and a clear direction, we first have to trust that God will take us where He wants us to go. We can’t lean on our own understanding or the knowledge of this world, but we must lean on God. And lastly, we have to acknowledge God, we have to recognize His presence, and we have to communicate with Him.

That’s what Jesus did in Matthew 26:39. It says, “Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will”. When Jesus is praying this prayer, he’s holding the cup of wrath. He knows if he goes down this path, it will lead to God’s wrath coming down on him through the cross. While he’s praying, we see that he acknowledged God was with him. He chose not to lean on his own understanding but on His Father’s. He was willing to trust that God wouldn’t take him down the wrong path. When he was finished praying, it was clear to him that the right way was the cross. But this didn’t make sense to those around Jesus. Even his closest followers tried to convince him to turn around because they thought he was going the wrong way. But Jesus had confidence in his direction because he trusted God, he leaned on God’s understanding, and he acknowledged him. He knew that this “wrong” way was right.

It’s a lot easier said than done, going the “wrong” way. It can be a scary and dangerous thing to do. That’s why the wrong way icon pops up. That’s why there are wrong way signs on roads. When you’re going the wrong way, you’re heading straight into oncoming traffic. Everyone is pushing against you; wrecks are bound to happen. When your right way clashes with someone else, it can get ugly. But when you know God has given you the right directions, nothing can stop you from continuing down that path. What seems right to the world is so often wrong in the eyes of God. We live in a society that’s always telling us, “this is the right way to go,” and so many people follow that blindly. If we want to go the God-inspired way in our life, we need to ask him for directions. That’s why it’s so important to go a little further into the garden of prayer, to seek God’s will a little longer because He will show us the right way if we just listen. Be obedient to God’s direction, even if the world thinks you’re going the wrong way. Because when God is involved, the “wrong” way proves to be right.

Two Benefits from Dwelling Under the Most High

One of the significant life decisions people have to make is where they choose to live. Some decide to stay where they’ve grown up; others prefer to move as far away as they can. Our physical destination will significantly determine how our lives play out. But more important than our physical dwelling is our spiritual dwelling. Our spiritual dwelling not only assigns our eternal destination, but it also has a substantial effect on our life now.

Psalm 91:1 states, “Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.” Those who choose to live with God will experience His presence and His protection. But to live with God, one must first find Him.

God is both harder and easier to find than a physical destination. Harder because you won’t find God on a map. You can’t type in His location on a GPS. Easier because once we start looking, we don’t have to go far before we find Him. God is omnipresent, or in other words, He is everywhere at the same time. Adam and Eve couldn’t hide from Him, Jonah couldn’t run from Him, and there is nowhere we can go that God is not already there. So, how can we find God?

Jeremiah 29:13 tells us, “You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.” Like many other things, it comes down to our heart. A half-hearted attempt to find God will deliver half-hearted results at best. But when we seek God with all of our hearts, we will find Him, and we will fall under His protection. Because God is already with us, He is merely waiting for each of us to acknowledge Him. And when we do, we become aware of the nearness of His presence. And with His presence comes protection.

Further down in Psalm 91:9-11, we see just how valuable this protection is. “Because you have made the Lord—my refuge, the Most High—your dwelling place, no harm will come to you; no plague will come near your tent. For he will give his angels orders concerning you, to protect you in all your ways.” With God’s presence comes His divine protection. The truth is, God wants you to be aware of Him. God wants to give you protection from the evils of this world. But He only promises this to those that dwell with Him. And to dwell with Him, we must seek Him with all our heart. The job of seeking is never finished. God never leaves us, but we constantly have to fight the fleshy urge to leave God and return to the things of this world. However, once we leave His refuge, we leave the protection that accompanies it.

The benefits of living under God’s protection are not as far away as you may think. God is with you now. He is just waiting for you to call on Him. And when you do, you will experience his presence and protection in unreal ways.

A Simple Way to Improve Your Holiness Today

Are siblings really siblings if they don't get into each other's things? I was three years old when my sister was born. I loved my sister so much that I asked my mom to have five more babies just like her. However, once she became old enough to get into my things, my mind was quickly changed. I went back on my word and told my mom that I had had enough. I didn't want any more babies in the house. As kids and even adults, we all tend to have our "sacred" items that we feel belong to us and no one else. When someone messes with our "sacred" things, we don't react well. As a kid, it was my toys. For others, it may be their car, their boat, or even their lawn. Things become special to us because we hold them as valuable.

It reminds me of a story about two brothers who loved to collect and trade baseball cards. The older brother had a special collection that the younger brother wasn't supposed to touch. One day when the older brother was gone, the younger brother did something he thought was helpful. He found his brother's special collection then proceeded to cut, hole punch, and glue them to a piece of paper so they would fit in a nice 3-ring binder. Needless to say, the older brother was not pleased when he had found out what happened. Most notably, a Hank Aaron rookie card was one of the cards ruined. This card now sells for around $100,000. When I read this story for the first time, my heart sank because something extremely valuable was ruined because someone didn't know how to handle it properly.

We are the same way, except we are the valuable thing. Unfortunately, many times we are the culprits that take away our value. But God does not see us as we see ourselves. In God's eyes, we are what's holy and sacred. We are His prized possession, set apart from the beginning of the world. But too often, we cut ourselves down with sin. 1 Peter 1:15-16 says, "But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. For the Scriptures say, '"You must be holy because I am holy."' We know that God is holy; the Bible goes to great lengths to prove that to us. But Peter is calling us all to be holy as God is holy. What a daunting task that is, and is it even possible?

The short answer is no; it's not possible to be as holy as God. But that's not what Peter is calling us to do. Peter is calling us to notice the holiness of God and exemplify it. God is like our teacher. He has told us He is perfect and holy and that we should be like Him, but thankfully God doesn't give this command and just walk away. He provides us with this command, then grabs our hand and helps us when we fall short. You see, our problem is we emphasize our role in becoming holy far more than we emphasize God's holiness. The only way we can obtain a hint of holiness is to be in union with God. God shows us His holiness, He corrects us when we slip up, and He brings us into His holiness so we can be holy like Him.

If you want to improve your holiness, you must realize that you are of value. God himself, the holiest of all, has set you apart and declared you as holy. Holiness requires a change in your mindset by focusing on God’s holiness. When we emphasize the holiness of God, it reveals his character. So, if you want to follow Peter’s command of being holy, start focusing on God and let His character show you how.