Proverbs 21:8-9

The way of the guilty person is devious,
but as for the pure, his way is upright.
It is better to live on a corner of the housetop
than in a house in company with a quarrelsome wife.

The way of the guilty person is devious. Crooked. Not Straight. But as for the one who is pure, the one who is clean, his way is upright, straight, not crooked.

It’s kind of like the person who’s always bouncing from one shiny object to another. (I’m not real worried that you’re one of those people, because if you were you’d have stopped reading by now. If not…squirrel!) You know the kind of person I’m talking about. I’m not talking about the person who is excited and passionate. That’s not a bad thing.

I’m talking about the person who is going full steam ahead on one thing, and then something shiny catches their attention, so they go over to work on that. Word of advice: NEVER go shopping with one of these people.

That’s the way of the guilty person. They are bouncing from one bad idea to another. The focus for a while on one form of evil, then as they get bored with that, they move on to another. Since they are driven by what pleases them at the moment, they have no direction in their lives. Therefore, the paths they walk are crooked. They almost never take a step forward. Instead, they spend most of their lives like they’re on a slide board that we used to use in PE as kids. They slide from side to side, never making any progress.

But this is not so for the pure and upright person. Their path is straight. Of course, no one’s path is perfectly straight. Everyone makes mistakes and goes after a shiny object from time to time.

However, the way of the upright person is not driven by the shiny objects. The way of the pure person is determined by the goal. You see, with the wicked/guilty person there is no finish line. Because of that, every shiny object becomes a finish line of sorts. And when they realize what they were seeking was shallow and vein, supreme disappointment and guilt set in. But with with pure person, there is an end in mind.

For the pure person knows that this life is a training camp for another life. The pure person has their mind set on becoming who God wants them to be so they are as ready for their role in eternity as possible. The pure person makes their decisions in this life based on how they will or won’t lead them further down the path towards God. The pure person makes decisions on where to go based on the same logic that the cosmos were built on. That’s why their paths are straighter.

What’s your path look like? Are you constantly chasing squirrels, spending your life on the slider? Or are you on a mission?