Two Roads

An Updated Primer for Young Men

🗝️ “The fear of Jesus Christ is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.” (Prov. 1:7)

The Cross is Our Tautology

You are not counted wise because you say that you are. You are not strengthened by wishing it. The path before you opens not by declaration, but by submission. The narrowing, the testing, the closed door, the false brother, the twisted teaching…

You will Know the Tree by its Fruit.

Fruit is Not a Story

One road, wide and popular, says: “Life is yours to command. Take what you desire. Define yourself.”

This road is filled with others who will encourage you. They will not question. They will not challenge. “They make much of you in order that you may make much of them.”

The other road, narrow and less traveled, says: “You are not your own. Bow low, and be taught by fear and fire.”

This road is filled with others who will hear you. They will point you to Christ. They will challenge you to love yet more. They will turn the other cheek, and ask that you do likewise.

One door leads to acclaim, and a hall of mirrors. The other to honest sorrow, and to a promise that is greater still.

One path opens to comfort now. Escape now. Justification now. The other leads to grief, “a man of sorrows,” and scars.

Glorious Scars

“Follow your truth. Be what you feel. Listen to what you assume.”

This breeds assumption. Nostalgia. Sentiment.

“The hard way is real. The Scriptures will not lie. Repent, and believe.”

Here bleeds trust. Patience. The Word, alone.

The choice is not yours. He chose you.

The choice is yours. Do not look back.

You will never see it all at once. You will never contain all the answers in your hand. There is no map of your life through the vale of tears which does not pass through fog. Evil days will be filled with wars, and rumors of wars. Because we do not have. Because we bite and devour. Because it is easier to draw lines in the sand than to fall on our knees and let the lot fall where it may.

All wisdom is learned by loving the crumbs which fall from the Master’s table. All discipline seems painful at the time. Not all knowledge is helpful, but faith in the One who is greater than knowledge is patient endurance: greater even than the great; stronger even than the strong; taste and see.

Wisdom is refraction. Wisdom is echo. Wisdom is not line upon line, list upon list, policy or politic. Prejudice is closing your eyes and screaming, “I already know that.”

Love is Kind.

It does not envy. It need not boast. It burns the record of wrongs.

It does not matter what you’ve sacrificed. God will give, and God will take away. It does not matter how you sing. Hypocrisy is a discord that tarnishes even the most heavenly chords. The crooked will feel it in their bones. The shame-laden will protest without end. The ledger of wrongs is its own irritation and curse to the one who keeps it.

Joy is suffering wrong, and seeing the Light it shines all around. Truth is a clean conscience even when the whole world is screaming, “No!” Belief, hope, and endurance are better than iron sharpened by iron, sweeter than honey from the comb, purer than gold refined seven times.

Prophecies will fall silent. Tongues will cease. Knowledge will be unmade.

Love Does Not Fail

We know in part. We speak in part. But Jesus Christ is the Mind that heals all wounds, that covers all divisions, that dissolves every shadow in the clarity of one endless song:

“Alleluia! He is risen!”

Remember, rather than demand. Kneel rather than grasp. Listen rather than stare. The call of Jesus Christ is not to be clever, but to trust good. Not to win arguments, but to receive soul. Not to understand all things, but to believe them.

Dilemma is not defeat. The broken road is the promise that you will become more than you could imagine. Flattery burns. But humility is the healing more miraculous than any wound. Pain is not the enemy, but the tutor of kings and paupers alike.

Learn from Him, for He is gentle of Spirit and quiet of Heart. Comfort is not victory, but blessed assurance.

In the fog of confusion, the light may look like ripples in the water. But God’s glory shines even through the veil, ripping open the curtain and putting an end to the pride. So, when you do not see “why” it is not the end. It is the moment when your salvation approaches most sure.

Come Out From Them

Wisdom is not fast. Discipline is not flashy. Truth is a seed sown in silence. Faith is a wrestling match with God that you lose.

In the secret place, where no one sees, when your words fail you, when you fall to your knees with nothing but an “I don’t know," the Way is not hidden. Trembling before Jesus is the greatness that even than death cannot stand against.

You are the son who stays in the fire. You are the man who bows before the rainbow. You are walking by faith, not by sight.

The world seeks to be praised, and honored with the mighty. But the fruit which grows on the Tree of Life is a flavor that never passes: hope.

And Hope Does Not Disappoint