One of the benefits of living to an older age is you live through different styles of music. Most mornings I wake up humming or singing some song of long ago. My wife accuses me of making up a tune and putting my own words to it. That is only true if I forget a word or two but the music truly belongs to some long-ago musician.

The other day I was singing “Rub-a-dub three men in a tub.” Some modern troubadour used the old nursery rhyme to make a song about his present relationship with his girl. For the moment, they were separated and he felt just like the three men sailing on the a song of lost love, he is hoping that his former partner will take the chance of helping him off his merry-go-round, spinning out of control.

The condition of this singer’s life reminds us that while we are in this world, we have to make decisions. Who are we, where will I wind up or what will I do with my life? If we never make any boundaries or decide what we want out of this world, we will be like that wayward tub of men: sailing off into an uncertain future.

Old nursery rhymes and love songs may reveal our present needs but one need we may overlook is the fact life doesn’t end when we die, there is more and better things in eternity or an eternity of misery. If I want to move from worldly life, into the future of life-everlasting there is only one possible way that can happen. Someone has to reach out and take control of our meandering life.

God promises that he can do that; he sent his only son to pay the cost for all human sin. To take hold of this promise we must believe, repent, change our actions and remain faithful to this son. At a very early age, I heard and believed that God was willing to rescue me from bad choices which humans aren’t likely to label as sins. But scripture tells us the truth — indeed we are sinners.

For me, I believe God that there is a wide and narrow road leading through life. Choosing his son is the only way to life everlasting.