Two Paths: Discover the Way That Leads to Life

By Craig W. Douglas

“There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.” (Proverbs 14:12, NIV)
As terrifying as it is to get lost in the wilderness, it’s much worse to lose your way in life. But God has not left us alone to figure it all out. He’s given us everything we need to find our way.
Two Paths provides a biblical map to find the best trail, stay on it, and experience a fantastic journey with Jesus. Inspiring, riveting true-life stories and biblical teaching will encourage you to make choices that bring joy and success, regardless of circumstances.
“For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” (Matthew 7:14)
If you want to discover the fulfilling life God intends for you, this book can help you find the way—his way!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Word Alive Press
• Release date: Oct 31, 2023
• ISBN: 9781486624461

Book preview

Introduction

The Journey Ahead

Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths.

~Psalm 25:4

Somehow, I took the wrong path and ended up far from where I wanted to go.

It was a beautiful spring day, and our family was visiting my mother in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. My teenage daughter, Lorelle, and I decided to spend the afternoon hiking up Mount Finlayson, a relatively short but steep hike with a gorgeous view of the Olympic Mountains across the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

Lorelle is always game for exercise and adventure and was happy to leave the planning details to me—and the carrying of our pack with the water bottles and snacks. We drove to Goldstream Park and started up the trail among towering Douglas firs. I had to stop several times to take photos—a compulsion of mine. The path started out steep and then got steeper, but after about an hour of scrambling over roots and rocks, we made it to the top, took some great photos, and enjoyed a less-than-healthy cookie snack.

Before leaving home, I had checked an online map and had seen a loop we could take around the back of the mountain on the way down. It was somewhat longer, but it looked interesting, so I suggested we go that way. Lorelle liked the idea, and we began our descent. Counting on my good sense of direction, I knew that staying to the right would provide a clockwise route around the mountain and back to where we’d parked.

Unfortunately, we kept coming to trails I thought we should take, and they were blocked off and marked closed—I assume for repair. I had no paper map with me, but I trusted my instincts to find the way back. However, it wasn’t long until I realized that my strategy of staying to the right was not working. We seemed to be walking in the wrong direction.

Eventually, the trail unexpectedly came out on a road, and I had no idea where we were. So I belatedly decided to check a map app on my phone. Sure enough, we had gone far out of our way. As the crow flies, we were literally about twice as far from the car as we had been on the summit! Fortunately, using my phone map, we were able to find our way along the roads back to Goldstream Park. However, my misdirection cost us almost an extra hour of hiking—on what should have been less than a two-hour hike!

Crossroads

I still don’t know exactly where I went wrong on that hike. I’ve since looked over the maps, and I have some theories. All I know is that I must have taken a wrong turn somewhere. I stood at a crossroads, a fork in the trail, and chose poorly.

I love hiking, and I’m so blessed to live in a part of the world where hiking trails abound. There are hundreds of great trails within an hour of where I’ve lived for the past eighteen years in Maple Ridge, British Columbia. Yet in my adventures, I have discovered that not all paths are equal. Some lead to wondrous vistas and views, interesting rock formations, beautiful waterfalls, and incredible scenery. Others are much less interesting, and some are even quite dangerous. Certain paths start out looking promising, but they slowly dwindle to nothing or take you farther from your desired destination.

It’s so easy to go the wrong way! I’ve often taken wrong or useless paths, only to retrace my steps. Other times, I’ve followed a trail that reviewers enjoyed, only to be disappointed. Sometimes my chosen routes have taken me into difficult circumstances, and occasionally, they have led me into unexpected danger.

Life’s decisions are a lot like choosing a trail. There are options all around us as to where we will go and how we will spend these few precious years on this planet. The challenge is knowing where to go and what to do with that time.

The Heart behind the Book

My children were teenagers when I began writing this book five years ago. I began writing specifically to them, chapter after chapter of lessons I had learned from life and God’s Word. It was meant to be a legacy for them, a way of leaving something behind that they would perhaps read and consider as they faced many challenges ahead of them. As my family read some of the chapters, they urged me to complete the project and publish it for others to read.

After about a year of writing—and far too many words—I began to agree in my heart that what I had written for my family could be helpful for others if it was reduced and given better focus. Over the years, I’ve taught and mentored hundreds of young people, and as I rewrote the book, they were always in mind. I kept asking myself what I could possibly give them to help them on their way. I realized that the best I could offer was to direct them to Jesus through what he had taught me, especially in his Word.

So as you read this book, you’ll likely hear a father’s heart in it, the voice of someone who wants the best for his kids and this rising generation. As I grow older, I desperately desire for the ones who will replace me to know Jesus and follow him with all their hearts.

As much as this book was written with teens and younger adults in mind, it will benefit anyone who wants to follow Jesus—or who even wants to want to follow Jesus!—and is struggling along the path. It’s written to be a guidepost, a sign pointing to God’s wisdom.

BONUS TIP: Along the way, you’ll see some bonus tips like this. These are somewhat related thoughts—important to me or just humorous—that I insert to break up the narrative and hopefully encourage you to stop and consider.

Finding Guidance

Once, when camping, I found my way to an outhouse in the middle of the night. The sky was overcast, the area heavily treed, and it was pitch black, so I relied on my flashlight to see the path. I must have gotten turned around on the way back from the outhouse, and I started down a trail that didn’t lead back to my tent. I experienced momentary panic as I realized I had no idea which direction to go to get back on track.

Even with my little flashlight, I could barely see the trail and didn’t know where it would lead. Fortunately, even in my sleepy state, I was sensible enough to turn around and head back to the outhouse. I then tried to remember what angle I had walked to it from my tent, and I eventually found my way back safely. I must admit, however, that it was somewhat disconcerting and even a little frightening. I would have been in a difficult situation had my flashlight lost power.

I’m so glad God doesn’t leave us to fend for ourselves in the dark. He hasn’t simply given us life and breath and said, Okay, people, now you go figure it out. Good luck! Instead, he has given us wisdom from his Word, his Spirit, and his people to guide us. We don’t have to guess where to go or how to live. We can know his will and the paths he wants us to take.

God’s Word in Proverbs tells us, "Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure" (Proverbs 4:26). Ponder. Consider. Think about the path you’re on and where it’s taking you. Wisely decide where to go. Proverbs also says, "There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death" (Proverbs 14:12).

The alternative to thoughtfully and wisely choosing our steps is to carelessly go wherever seems or feels good and right. That’s a path that leads to death! We have but one life to live. That’s it! Then we enter eternity. Not only is our destiny at stake, but the quality and meaning of our lives. It can so easily be wasted if we choose unwisely.

The following chapters will take us on a journey through scripture and real-life experiences to illustrate the way of wisdom and how to make choices that will result in a full, productive, and meaningful life. I pray that God’s Spirit will use this book to help guide you in his ways.

— Chapter One —

Choosing Your Path

You make known to me the path of life;

in your presence there is fullness of joy;

at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

~ Psalm 16:11

We always have a choice, but all choices are not equal. Some will bring you success, while others will bring you to ruin.

I used to enjoy reading Choose Your Own Adventure books. Each page was a short narrative followed by a choice. Do I pursue the dragon, or help the maiden in distress? Which town should I travel to? Do I drink the potion or not? Instead of reading about someone else’s adventure, it made me the central character.

Each time I made a choice, the book would send me to a different page to continue the narrative and show me the results of my choice. Usually it allowed me to continue my adventure, but sometimes my choice would end in disaster. My character might die from drinking the potion, or I may not achieve my goal because I foolishly chased the dragon when I was supposed to save the maiden.

The great thing was that when I failed, I could either start over or simply go back to the previous page and make a different choice. My choices had no real consequences. In fact, it was sometimes fun to make an obviously poor choice and see what happened to my character!

Life Is about Choices

Fortunately, life’s not like that. We don’t have to make life-or-death decisions every few minutes, nor do we usually have to make essential decisions without any knowledge or context. However, most of the decisions we make have real-life consequences. We can never turn back the pages and change our choices. Right now, as I type, I’m choosing to keep writing instead of doing what I feel like doing—going outside and enjoying the sunshine! Five minutes from now, I may have to make that same choice, or I may have to choose whether to answer a text or ignore it for now.

Where I am right now is also the result of countless decisions I’ve made previously in my life. I can’t easily change where I am today or what kind of person I am right now. However, tomorrow is unwritten, and the choices I make over the next twenty-four hours will, in many ways, determine where my life is at tomorrow.

Each day is also affected by many things beyond my control. Last week, I did all the cooking and cleaning because my wife was sick. There’s not much I could have done about that, but I still had the choice of how to deal with it. For example, I could have been grumpy, or I could have embraced it as an opportunity to serve my wife. Even that choice was affected by previous decisions, for if I’d chosen resentment in the past, it would be much harder to choose grace in this situation.

Every choice takes us in a direction, and the sum of our choices creates the path of our life.

Know before You Go

I generally plan ahead when hiking, especially in a new area. Today we’re fortunate to have many maps and tools on the internet to help us see paths before we start down them. I have an app that enables me to know the length of a trail, how long an average hiker takes to complete it, how much elevation gain and loss is involved, and how difficult others have rated it. It provides recent photos and even up-to-date trail conditions.

Similarly, we can check out the trail ahead of us in life before going there. Before we make a choice that takes us down any path in life, we can stop, determine what’s ahead, and decide what to do, based on that information.

The trouble is that most of us live by instinct instead of wisdom. We often look ahead and make choices based on what feels right or looks good. I did that on our Mount Finlayson hike. Our culture fuels this by cultivating the lie that we need to be true to ourselves or live our own truth. Somehow, we have become convinced that we’re each smart enough and experienced enough to do what is best without any advice or help from anyone else.

BONUS TIP: There is no such thing as a person’s own truth. A person’s own opinion or own feelings about a situation are valid, but truth is not subjective. Believing something does not make it true for you or anyone else.

Foolishness

There’s a word in the Bible used to describe this arrogance of assuming we always know the right paths to take: foolishness. This is especially displayed in the book of Proverbs. A good summary of this is found in Proverbs 12:15: "The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice. The way of a fool is right in his own eyes" (emphasis added). In other words, the direction of a foolish person’s life seems good to them. What they do feels right, and no one can tell them differently. In comparison to the wise person, this verse implies that a fool doesn’t listen to advice. That’s a major difference between wisdom and foolishness—whether we have the humility or not to admit that we don’t have all the answers.

It’s foolish to live by instinct, by feeling, hoping that we will somehow get it right. It’s like walking barefoot through a dark house with the power out and with toys all over the floor, hoping we don’t step on them. You may get lucky for a while, but sooner or later, you’ll step on that little piece of Lego, and it will hurt! Why not first grab a flashlight to see where you’re walking?

The wise person brings light to each situation to find a path that avoids harm. The fool walks in the dark, assuming they know the way and can avoid dangers. We would call a person a fool who could have grabbed a flashlight and chose not to. Yet our society often celebrates those who make their own way in the world without listening to advice from others.

When children are young, we never assume they know the right thing to do. One day when my son was little, we were walking in a parking lot, and he suddenly pulled away and ran towards traffic on a busy road. It was terrifying! After I grabbed him, I had to sit him down and help him understand that he must never do that again. He was young, and he couldn’t comprehend the danger around him. However, he listened to wisdom and thankfully never ran towards traffic again. "A fool spurns a parent’s discipline, but whoever heeds correction shows prudence" (Proverbs 15:5, NIV).

The fool doesn’t listen to those older and more experienced in life, whereas those with prudence—another word for wisdom—change their path when corrected. Accepting correction is not easy! As a young boy, I fought against it tooth and nail. I hated to be told what to do, and I often had to be disciplined for my behavior. I had a wild and foolish streak that needed to be corrected or I would have gone down many destructive paths.

Look at what a few of the Proverbs say about foolishness:

• "Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered" (Proverbs 28:26).

• "A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion" (Proverbs 18:2).

• "Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly" (Proverbs 26:11).

• "Folly is a joy to him who lacks sense, but a man of understanding walks straight ahead" (Proverbs 15:21).

• "A fool’s lips walk into a fight, and his mouth invites a beating. A fool’s mouth is his ruin, and his lips are a snare to his soul" (Proverbs 18:6–7).

• "Doing wrong is like a joke to a fool, but wisdom is pleasure to a man of understanding" (Proverbs 10:23).

• "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction" (Proverbs 1:7).

Those who ignore wisdom—fools—could be summarized as follows:

• They trust what they think they know instead of listening to good advice.

• They love to hear themselves talk rather than listen to what others have learned.

• They don’t learn from their own mistakes.

• They enjoy being foolish and taking crooked paths.

• They repeatedly say things they shouldn’t, leading to much trouble.

• They find it funny to do and say what is morally wrong.

• They hate it when people correct them or try to show them better ways to live.

Reread these definitions and ask yourself, Could I ever be considered a fool? Do the people I spend time with live these ways?

Wisdom or Consequences?

We need wisdom to avoid dangerous, destructive, and useless paths. If you talk to people caught up in drug habits or crime, they often say they wish they’d listened to those who warned them not to go that way. They wish they could go back and make different choices, that they’d had the ability or the guts to say no to certain things along the way. Often they were influenced by friends or by those who didn’t care about them