Standing at the Crossroads of the Cross

Crossroads, a blues classic performed by Eric Clapton, is a song about a man seeking escape from his desperate existence. Will he find it in a motorcycle ride, a drinking binge, a flight from one destination to the next, or in God’s grace? At the song’s end, we are left to wonder. Nevertheless, the lyrics, laced with Clapton’s riveting guitar riffs, grab our attention.

I went down to the crossroads, fell down on my knees.
Asked the lord above for mercy, “Save me if you please.”

A crossroads is a place where divergent paths meet, forcing us to make choices which can be at once exciting and scary. It can be a place of crisis, where the pain of the past butts up against hopes for the future; or a place of opportunity, where the road ahead promises brighter prospects in the vast frontier beyond.

In either case, a crossroads is a call to change: from where we’ve been to where we’re going; from what we’re leaving behind to what we’re striving for; from whom we are to who we’re becoming.

As free-willed creatures, we are continually leaving one crossroads and entering another. Will we pick up the ball or the doll? Will we eat our food or play with it? Will we wear blue socks or black socks? Will we finish high school or work as a mechanic? Will we propose to Susan or play the field? And on it goes.

Like a string of beads on a necklace, crossroads connect the past, present, and future of human experience in an unbroken thread of possibility. But the central crossroads, the one through which every life must pass, lies on a hill in Golgotha.

Read more at Crisis.