Psalm 119:96 (NIV)
96 To all perfection I see a limit; but your commands are boundless.
The ruts that are not righteous lead to destruction. Someone has said that God’s ways may seem narrow, but if one enters into the path that they direct one on it is like a reverse funnel that then eventually opens up wide; and, in contrast, that the wideness of the world’s ways deceptively draws one into a narrowness that is ultimately stiflingly restrictive. The righteous ruts lead us to life abundant and everlasting, but the unrighteous paths lead to destruction.
A rut is usually a pejorative reference to something that one has gotten stuck in, perhaps subconsciously out of habit, fatigue or lack of imagination. However I have walked across fields, through woods, and over hills following ruts. There were times when I thought while walking that just ‘over there’ was a smoother, easier and faster way. Most of the time I would shortly be back in the rut after discovering some much rougher even impassable places on the track that I thought, extemporaneously, looked better.
May we learn and teach others to walk in the paths that will give rest to our souls. Help us to nurture our marriages and children, churches and schools, communities and nations with traditional truths that truly build up and strengthen.
Jeremiah 6:16 (NIV)
16 This is what the LORD says: "Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But you said, 'We will not walk in it.'
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