It is interesting to see how roads and streets are named. Sometimes the streets are named according to a theme, or for people, or totally at random. It has always struck me as rather strange, however, that despite what Jesus said, just about any city has a “Broadway,” and few have a “Narrow Way.” He warned, “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it” (Matthew 7:13-14). 

            It shouldn’t be that surprising, though, since the broad way has always been the popular way. That narrow way will always be the choice of the few. Robert Frost wrote, “Two roads diverged in a wood, and ISYMBOL 190 \f "Symbol"I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.” Surely that narrow way is the “one less traveled by,” but oh, what a difference it does make.

            A street many are striving to find is “Easy Street.” I have seen many “Broadways,” but I know only one “Easy Street.” One of the elders of the church in Kannapolis, NC lived on a tree lined street named “Easy Street.” He enjoyed surprising people when he told them his address. He would say something like, “I live where everybody wants to live, on Easy Street.” Most of us want the advantages of being on “Easy Street.” Never mind that Paul said, “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” (2 Timothy 3:12). Consider Moses, “Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward’ (Hebrews 11:26). 

Are You on Easy Street?
By Bob Prichard
www.oxfordchurchofchrist.com