Freedom Down the One Road to the Finish Line

We had disappeared into the trails, running alone underneath the trees’ dappled shadows. With swift strides I chased after the runner in front of me, following her down the left road in the path’s fork.

For a few moments I continued down this path, until the other runner made a sudden turn. “I think we went the wrong way,” she whispered amidst heavy breaths.

We ran back to the fork and turned onto the other path—the right path. And after a blur of hills and grass and rapid heartbeats, I crossed the finish line of my second eighth-grade race.

Last fall I got the opportunity to run another race on this same course, and something felt redeeming about staying on the right path that time. But when I look back on that race from over a year ago—that race in which I got lost—I’m able to say that I finished it, wrong turn and all.

The wrong turn hadn’t prevented me reaching that finish line. But if I hadn’t turned around, I wouldn’t have found myself in that place.

I would have instead found myself in a place of being more lost.

I started that race with the hope of finding myself at the finish line. You don’t start a race without that hope. You don’t start a journey without the hope of finding yourself at your destination when you reach its end.

But where do you hope to find yourself?

There’s only one road that leads to the finish line

Whenever we start our race of life, we start out the same way—running free in the expanse of this wide world. Taking it all in, seeing what it has to offer. It’s big, it’s beautiful, and…

It’s broken.

We push through the brokenness, and along the way we start to carry the weight of a world that needs restoration. We start to carry the weight of our own past, our own struggles, our own shame…

And, at some point or another, we all approach that fork in the road. And it’s at that fork that we have to decide: What do we really believe?

Do we believe in something more? Do we believe that life’s road has a greater destination?

Do we believe that this race has a finish line, and do we know how to get there?

“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'”

~John 14:6, ESV

The beautiful thing about the gospel is that has the freeing promise of a finish line—heaven. And yet, there’s only one way to get there—Jesus.

And when we stand at that fork in the road, looking at the world from all these different perspectives, staring down all these different paths of beliefs… We only have one path that will take us to our greater destination.

That path is the race course that was set before us (Heb. 12:1), the race course that leads to the finish line.

But if we only have one path that we can choose—if we’re not free to run down whichever road we wish, believe whatever we want—to get to the finish line… How is that freedom? How is that even running free?

It’s important to remember that we’ve still been given a choice. We’ve still been given the opportunity to stand at that fork in the road and decide what we truly believe.

But do you believe that you’ve been set free?

Freedom—It’s never free

Freedom always comes at a price. And the cost of true freedom—freedom from sin and shame and the things that weigh us down—is blood.

Paying the debt for our sin costs us our life. But Jesus already paid that price. He took the weight of a world that needs restoration, and He carried it to the cross.

“So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”

~John 8:36

Something that once stood at the end of an impossible road has now become within our reach. But we have to believe in the Son who will set us free.

The idea that “all roads lead to heaven” stems from a longing for freedom from shame. It’s a way of trying to find freedom apart from Christ.

But why run down a different road when Christ is standing right here, arms wide open, ready to give us true freedom?

Jesus already endured the cross. He already scorned its shame (Heb. 12:1). And He did it to pay the price, to give you freedom down the road of faith.

But are you willing to run down that road?

It’s never too late to turn around

Even if you’ve been running down a different road for your whole life, it’s never too late to turn around and run down the road that leads to the finish line.

And even if you’ve been carrying burdens for your whole life, it’s never too late to leave them behind at the foot of the cross.

It’s never too late to be able to truly run free.

This is the power of God’s grace. You don’t have to do anything to earn it.

God’s already waiting for you, with open arms, to take the first step in running back to Him.

He’s waiting for you to be found.

And getting lost, wandering down a different road—That’s never a reason for shame. Turning around, becoming found—That’s the way to find true freedom.

And it’s the way to run to the hope of heaven.

Choosing “the road less traveled by”

I’ve noticed that today’s generation has wandered down so many of these other roads. Today’s generation is lost, and I am praying that this generation will be found.

My heart hurts for those who haven’t found the freedom in the road of faith. I’m praying that, in today’s day and age, those of us who have found this hope will shine as lights for those who are still wandering in the dark.

I’m praying for you, reader. I’m praying that your light will shine bright as you run down this road of faith.

This verse from Matthew seems especially important in our time:

“Enter through the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who go through it. How narrow is the gate and difficult the road that leads to life, and few find it.”

~Matthew 7:13-14, CSB

Right now, choosing to live in Christ is choosing to run down the less-traveled road.

It’s not a road that’s supposed to be easy, but it’s a road that’s guaranteed to bring you freedom and hope.

And the finish line is waiting at the end for those who choose to keep the faith.

Whatever choice you make at that fork in the road is the most important choice that you’re going to make in this life.

And choosing the road of faith is what’s going to make the biggest difference in this life.

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
-Robert Frost, "The Road Not Taken"

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