Ok . . . so I’m a sucker for nostalgic songs . . . especially if it’s a country song . . . especially, especially if The Isaacs are performing it. Something about guitars, tight harmonies, and singing “Grandpa, tell me ’bout the good old days” that draws me in . . . and mellows me out. To think about a wise and seasoned man rocking on the front porch talking to his grandkids . . . telling them of a day when lovers really fell in love to stay . . . when a promise was really something people kept . . . and families bowed their heads to pray . . . has a way of stirring up the sentimental side of me . . . and wondering what happened to those good old days. The song flooded into my head as I was read something in Jeremiah this morning.

In the midst of some of the most condemning “thus says the LORD” prophecies . . . surrounded by indictments of a people who had so rejected their God, and so played the harlot, that they were beyond feeling shame, and didn’t even know how to blush (Jer. 6:15), . . . in the dark clouds of the warning of impending judgment . . . the LORD offers this plea to any who might still have ears to hear . . .

Thus says the LORD: “Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls. . . . “ (Jeremiah 6:16 ESV)

There is something about pausing for a moment and looking to the roads before us. They are the crossroads of the narrow way of following Christ and the ever broadening super highway of the world. Roads frequently set before us . . . though often we don’t even take the foot off the gas long enough to recognize the choices. But the Father’s encouragement is to stand by the roads and to look . . . to take notice . . . to perceive . . . to inspect. Another prophet, Haggai, put it this way, “Consider your ways.” Though the world’s current is strong, and perhaps it’s easier to just go with the flow, there is something to be said for standing still for a moment and thinking about the choices before us . . . and then asking for the ancient paths.

The ancient paths . . . not the good old days per se . . . not just the traditions of bygone eras . . . but the paths of the Ancient One . . . the “Plan A” of the One who created us . . . the paths of righteousness, holiness, and communion. The path, though conceived before the foundation of the earth, declared to be a new and living way opened up to us through the work of Christ on the cross . . . a path that leads us to confidently enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus (Heb. 10:19-20). The path where the good way is . . .

Not a way of our making . . . not a way of our sustaining . . . not a way that, in and of ourselves, we can navigate. But through His finished work . . . through His abiding Spirit . . . and with His all-sufficient grace . . . a way that we can walk in . . . the path in which we can find rest for our souls.

O’ tell me ’bout the good old ways. Good because He is good . . . good because He is the Way (John 14:6).

I’m a sucker for a nostalgic song . . . can get kind of sentimental and teary eyed. But I’m also a sinner in need of the reminder of a saving Son. A pilgrim in need of recalibration, from time to time, as to the journey . . . a child of God called to walk in a manner worthy of my calling. Mine is stand by the roads . . . behold and consider the diverging paths . . . and ask for the way of Him who is the same yesterday, today, and forever . . . and then walk in it . . . and find rest for my soul.

By His grace . . . for His glory . . .