Learning to Trust God Along the Way
Rules. There are a lot of them, don’t you think? It seems the world bombards us with them as soon as we’ve mastered the transition from sitting up to crawling. Don’t lick the electrical outlet. Don’t eat the kibbles out of the dog bowl. Under no circumstances should you put anything up your nose, including said kibble. And they just pile on from there. Rules are meant to direct us where we’re supposed to be. As such they’re everywhere. Rules exist for school, relationships, driving, eating…grammar, work, airline travel, you name it. The unwritten rules are the worst—they only show up once you’ve broken them.
If I’m being honest, though, I have to admit that I don’t mind them all that much. I’m somewhat of a rule follower. I like the order and structure they provide, finding comfort in their clear guidelines and predictable outcomes. Think Hermione Granger with wrinkles and a Southern accent.
The problem for me is when rules are ambiguous. For example, yield signs. To be truly clear, they actually should come with a second sign that spells it all out for us: “Slow down… maybe stop. Or don’t. It depends. Ease forward a skoosh…you’ll figure it out.” Another rule that is quite muzzy is the dog park rule “Pets must be controlled at all times.” For my 35-pound, gentle-but-amorous dog Goose, that probably just means “Don’t allow him to hump the leg of other dog owners.” But for my muscle-bound, pit mix? That rule obviously means “Do not let her bowl over every person in the dog park—nor all the passers-by to and from.” And then, of course, there’s jaywalking. Honestly—is it even jaywalking if no car is coming?
On the Road to Where We’re Supposed to Be
A number of years ago on a spring-break trip in Mexico, my son and I traveled along a stretch of highway through the Yucatán Peninsula. There, we experienced an extreme example of how rules can be less than definitive in directing us to where we’re supposed to be. In the U.S., drivers are not only accustomed to, but make every effort to follow, the rules of the road. After all, they do involve matters of life and death. So silly us, we expected the traffic regulations and road signs in the Yucatán to be just as unambiguous and obvious as at home.
But on this stretch of road, traffic signs were more suggestion than regulation. In fact, making your own rules, or ignoring them altogether, was the law of the land. There were stop signs that didn’t always mean stop. There were almost no one-way signs, though virtually every road in the small towns was one way. Angry drivers made us aware of that fact only after we turned the wrong way onto one, and they gave us a not-so-friendly (but very unambiguous) hand sign. And my personal favorite, the road signs advising drivers to “Obey the signs,” a directive obviously meant as satire as absolutely no one does.
The Mexican DOT Knows Where We’re Supposed To Be
Since no one really bothers to read the signs, I was surprised to see that the Mexican Department of Transportation had put up official road signs offering life lessons as well as traffic “suggestions.” Some signs gave practical reminders. For example: “Remember your family, they are waiting on you!” and “After an accident, nothing is the same.” Perhaps the most profound signs offered sage rules to live by. They included: “You can’t take it with you!” and “You are exactly where you are supposed to be.”
Given my Hermione-ness, the ambiguity of the Yucatán’s traffic regulations made me nervous. For much of the trip, I couldn’t wait to get out of that car. But then the Mexican DOT was kind enough to remind me that I was exactly where I was supposed to be. When I stopped worrying, wondering, and doubting, I realized I was having fun.
When I began to laugh at the confusion and live in the moment, I was able to enjoy the day as it unfolded. We didn’t come to a complete stop at every “Alto” sign, and we even dared to pass a slow-moving vehicle on the shoulder. We did, however, adhere to the signs warning against placing rocks on the road, because…well…why would we want to place rocks on the road?
Missing the Point of Where We’re Supposed to Be
I’m not the first to find myself tangled up in rules. It happens to all of us from time to time. In Jesus’ day, though, the problem wasn’t so much the ambiguity of rules, but the over-abundancy of them. Pharisaic leaders were well known for their rigid policies. In fact, I’m certain they would not have enjoyed driving in the Yucatán whatsoever. And Jesus, much like those Mexican road signs, kept telling them that the point wasn’t the rules themselves but the heart behind them.
The Pharisees believed a person’s relationship with God was based primarily upon their rule-keeping ability and sought to prevent the Jewish people from breaking even the minutest of decrees. In addition to the 613 ceremonial laws given in the Old Testament, they added many of their own.
Their rules on the Sabbath are a great example of how inane some of these rules could be. The Pharisees created 39 categories of forbidden labor on this day of rest, making it virtually impossible to do much of anything. Spitting on the ground was off-limits to the Jewish people, because their saliva might create mud—and mud counted as kneading, a prohibited category of labor. I think even Hermione Granger would roll her eyes at that one.
Over the Top Rules
These over-the-top rules created by the Pharisees caused Jesus to criticize them for their misguided intentions. He warned the crowds in the temple court that the Pharisees burdened them with the heavy laws they laid upon their shoulders. In Mark 7, He directly called the Pharisees hypocrites, admonishing them with Isaiah’s prophesy: “They honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; they worship me in vain, teaching human rules as doctrines.”
In a way, just as the Mexican DOT wants drivers on the Yucatán roads to understand the deeper intention of the rules, Jesus expects something similar from God’s children. He knows that the purpose of God’s laws is to guide life, not make it more difficult. And as such, Christ doesn’t want us to blindly follow rules just because they’re rules. He wants us to dig deeper and follow the rules because we love God and want to please Him. And while most rule-setters attack those who break them, our Lord and Savior does not. The Bible is quite clear about that: “God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save it (John 3:17).
Trusting the One Who Knows the Way
The Pharisees thought that if they obeyed God’s rules to the letter, they would get where they’re supposed to be—Heaven. But even in the Old Testament, where the concept of eternal life is not yet fully developed, God doesn’t merit His favor based on performance. Instead, He calls on His children to trust Him, emphasizing heart, humility, and repentance. You can see this clearly in Isaiah 1:13, when God calls the sacrifices made by His people “meaningless” and “worthless.” He does this because they were following the rules, but completely ignoring the spirit behind them.
The Pharisees would probably delight in all the rules that bombard us today. I can imagine them grinning brightly as they make their way through the TSA line at the airport. The Hermione in me still clings to rules sometimes. After all, I can only mess something up so much if I’m following them to the nth degree, right? Thankfully, God doesn’t expect perfection. He won’t abandon us. Even if we ignore a Yucatán road sign. Even if we go ahead and put rocks on the road. What our Heavenly Father really wants is a relationship with us. He wants that relationship to affect how we treat others. And yes, He has rules about that. In Matthew 22:37, Jesus calls them the greatest commandments: Love God, and love each other.
A Lamp Unto Our Feet
Rules aren’t always as straightforward as the commandments, however. And like the Yucatán roadways with the unhelpful signage, life doesn’t always give us clear directions or take us directly to where we’re supposed to be. The beauty of not knowing where to go or how to get there, though, is that God knows, and He’ll travel beside us if we let Him. All we have to do is trust in His plan for us, and He’ll lead us step by step.
God might not provide a roadmap for every twist and turn along our route. But through His Word, He gives us “a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path” (Psalm 119:105). The road-sign-writing philosopher in Mexico knew this. We can embrace the truth, too. If we follow God’s leading with love, trust, and joy, we might not end up where we planned, but we’ll find ourselves exactly where God intends us to be.
