We laud order. Vertical walls, level floors, and square doorframes make the craftsman’s reputation. Clear proposals mark the honest merchant. Full disclosure labels the trustworthy leader. Direct speech seems right, wholesome, and godly. We Western believers, in particular, point authoritative fingers at “let your yes be yes and your no be no.” We expect both church and consecrated life to base logical design upon rational strategy. Ought to be simple, right? Plan your flight, then fly your plan.

Unfortunately, life is messy. People lose vision, fail to deliver, jump to conclusions, assume the worst, and disappoint at crucial moments. Simple living morphs into Byzantine labyrinths, swallowing participants and bystanders alike. Later, when the kids sleep and cool night wind blows in cricket sounds around our lone lamp, we wrestle despair, watching clean rot into quagmire. How can Jesus advance His kingdom using the church—a motley menagerie of rebels, malcontents, and stiff-necked prima donnas? What happened to the straight paths He promised if we committed our way to Him?

Depends upon what we mean by ‘straight.’ Light, for example, always travels in a straight line. Yet, shine a ray near something really big with lots of gravity, such as Jupiter or the Sun, and it bends like wet spaghetti. Contradiction? No. Large mass distorts space itself so that the twisted only looks straight. Likewise, the fallen world’s mass of sin only makes our perverted ways look upright. What we call straight—predictable, easy to follow, and, above all else, controllable—leads to dark ways and the grave.

On the other hand, the measure of God’s ‘straight’ rests in a different realm. Isaiah pointed at a voice of one calling, “In the desert, prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

So, when you look back at the craggy, crooked path He’s led you along and consider the uncertain, hidden way ahead, how do you see it as a straight highway in His Kingdom pointing directly at Jesus?

Proverbs 3:5-6; Proverbs 16:25; John 14:25-27; Isaiah 40:1-5; 1 Corinthians 15:33; Matthew 5:33-37