By Doug Redford
We’ve probably all turned down a street and seen a sign that says, “No Outlet” or “Dead End.” What’s the difference between those two? A “Dead End” street means one street, with no cross streets and possibly a cul-de-sac at the end. “No Outlet” means the street connects to one or more streets that will take you around the neighborhood, but to get back out you have to exit the way you came in.
Many people live life trying various side streets—first one and then another, looking for something that makes life worthwhile, that provides purpose and meaning. They spend most of their time traveling on side streets that may look promising but never give them what they’re seeking. Their journeys lead them to the equivalent of a dead end.
Today’s world, with all its technology and outlets for entertainment, offers an endless number of side streets and diversions that provide a fleeting measure of pleasure but offer no true contentment for the inner person, the soul.
One of Jesus’ most poignant questions—one that continues to challenge our mad pursuit of the “good life”—is, “What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?” (Matthew 16:26).
Someone may claim, “When Jesus said that in the first century, the world didn’t have much to offer. Today’s world offers what people in Jesus’ day could not even dream of.”
But Jesus’ question will not be so easily dismissed. In truth, all the world can provide amounts to nothing more than new, more attractive side streets—and more dead ends.
Jesus still proclaims to a travel-weary world, “I am the way.” He comes amid the confusion of the culture to say, “Follow me.” Paul says that Jesus has brought us into the “kingdom of light” and “has rescued us from the dominion of darkness” (Colossians 1:12-13). Jesus will show us how to exit from all the side streets, alleys, and dead ends and get us home where we belong.
Here at the Communion table, no matter what side roads and detours we have traveled, no matter how lost we have been during the course of our lifetime, we share a common meal that reinforces the reassuring truth: we’ve come home. As hymn writer Rufus H. McDaniel put it, “I have ceased from my wandering and going astray, since Jesus came into my heart!”
Doug Redford has served in the preaching ministry, as an editor of adult Sunday school curriculum, and as a Bible college professor. Now retired, he continues to write and speak as opportunities come.
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