I worked the same job, in the same place, while living in the same house for more than 15 years. And as part of that, I traveled the same route back and forth to work nearly all that time. Yet, one day while driving home from work, I had this most instructive experience.

It had been a long day, and I was lost in thought. I saw the train coming and I tried to get to the crossing before he did, but no luck. He was there. So I pulled up to the tracks and stopped waiting for him to pass. Now, somehow it failed to register that something wasn’t quite right. There was no crossing bar blocking my way as there should have been. And there were no lights flashing in my face telling me to stop as there should have been. For some strange reason they all pointed the other way – away from me. And even odd was there were no other cars at the crossing waiting for the train; I was all alone at the busiest hour of the day.

I waited and finally the train passed. As that last car flashed by and the tracks were clear, I looked up and was surprised to see both lanes of the street in front of me filled with cars coming right at me. My first reaction was, ‘what is wrong with these people?’ But that changed instantly as the crossing bar on the other side of the tracks raised up, and both lanes of backed-up traffic started coming towards me.

Yeah, you figured it out. I had turned the wrong way down a one-way street, and now I couldn’t turn around. There was no time for a three-point turn, nor could I get off the street; there was no place to go. There was only one thing I could do. In my old mustard-yellow truck – known to virtually everyone in town, I might add – I dropped it in reverse and backed up just as fast as I could go. Up the street I went at a speed that Mater would have been proud of, with two lanes of cars chasing me. I went the better part of a block, until I reached the point where I had made the wrong turn. And then I corrected my course, and went home with a sheepish feeling that lasts to this day.

Now, it’s called a ‘wrong turn,’ and you know everyone makes them. Knowing this, in one of his last sermons to Israel in Deuteronomy, Moses promised his people, “When thou art in tribulation…if thou turn to the Lord thy God, and shalt be obedient unto his voice…. he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee…” (Deuteronomy 4:30-31)

Notwithstanding the warnings and the promises, Israel in time became careless, and they took a wrong turn down the lane of idolatry and wickedness. The Lord and his Prophets faced them boldly and opposed their course, but it made no different; onward they drove in stubborn stupidity until they were wrecked and destroyed. Israel’s end was to be towed away, as it were, into captivity.

Now, 3000 + years later, we are in the driver’s seat, facing the same choices, traveling the same road, as it were. Have we learned anything from our ancient fathers? Well, I hope we have; I hope we have learned that making wrong turns happens to all of us, but when we do, we back up immediately and get right with God as fast as we can. After all, happiness is a one-way street!