Devotionals by FamilyLife

Just Go the Other Way
By Jim Mitchell

I once made a laughably simple discovery that’s stuck with me decades later. I’m warning you: You’ll laugh too, until you try it.

At the time, I was driving a shuttle bus in the Dallas area to help pay for college. This was before mobile phones and GPS (if you can imagine such a world!), so drivers were provided printed maps instead.

Take time to read a printed map with a 15-passenger van full of hurried travelers? Ain’t nobody got time for that. So we handled navigation on the fly.

I began to notice two peculiar things about myself: 1) As I approached important intersections I almost always had a gut instinct about which way to turn, and 2) my gut instinct was virtually always wrong.

Seriously. Coming up on a key turn, I’d look to my left and see lots of neighborhood lights, then look to my right and see nothing but darkness or an empty-looking industrial area, and I’d think to myself, “Okay, it’s gotta be left.” So, I’d turn left, only to be corrected by a backseat driver.

Finally, it hit me. Why don’t I just always go the other way? I tried it. And it worked!

Yep, I warned you it was laughably simple. But it’s proven itself true so many times, not just in driving but in relationships.

I guess I’m just good at being wrong, though not always at admitting it.

C.S. Lewis said it this way in Mere Christianity:

If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; and in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive man … There is nothing progressive about being pigheaded and refusing to admit a mistake.

So, if you’re like me―good at being wrong―take advantage of it and go the other way. I’m telling you from experience, there’s no downside.

Click here to read how to establish a “new normal” in your marriage.

The Good Stuff: There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death. (Proverbs 14:12)

Action Points: Have yourself a good chuckle and try it this week. Find an intersection in your relationship, listen to your gut, and then go the other way. Thank me later.

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