A highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness. The unclean will not journey on it; it will be for those who walk in that Way. (Isa. 35:8)
ITS ORIGINS ARE LOST to history, but the old “walk this way” gag seems to have made its first film appearance in After the Thin Man in 1936. William Powell enters a home in which a frail and elderly butler takes his coat and instructs Powell, “Walk this way,” as he shuffles awkwardly down the hall. Powell shrugs his shoulders and imitates the man’s walk.
The prophet Isaiah wrote about a road called the “Way of Holiness,” and its only travelers will be those who “walk in that Way”—those whose lives exemplify holiness. Many of us struggle with defining exactly what a holy life looks like. Some of us have been taught rules about how to dress, how to worship, and how to speak and behave. Jesus addressed the Pharisees, the masters of rule-keeping, when He talked about the most important rules to follow. For Jesus, living a holy life boiled down to two things. He said, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself'” (Matt. 22:37–39). Living in a way that demonstrates love for God and others is the best way to live a holy life—and the best way to reserve your place on the Lord’s highway, the highway of holiness.
Take a step on the highway of holiness today by showing love to someone in a tangible way.
Mary McNeil Blackford is a full-time student and freelance editor. She and her husband, Rick, live in Erie, Pennsylvania, with their three dogs.
