How much of what has happened to us responsible for where we find ourselves? I don’t know about you but I’m a bit, no a lot, fed up with hearing people say this happened to me that’s why I did this terrible thing, or why I am the way I am. Yes sure our past shaped us but we are responsible for the choices we made and the ones we’ve yet to make. We can’t change what others do to us but we can choose how we react. We can choose the things we do to and for others and the things we do to and for ourselves.
Robert Frost wrote ‘Two Roads diverged in the yellow wood……..’ That’s what every day is like. We have many choices to make everyday, which road do you take?
I like the idea of taking the road less travelled I’ve always felt a little out of kilter with the general population. Sad as it may seem crime, shattered families and dysfunctional lives seem to be the norm, and the goals we strive for appear more important than the means we use to achieve them. Am I the perfect model of a life of integrity and living responsibility? No not by along shot. I try but I’m not always successful. Sometimes integrity is more difficult, less self serving and not as clear cut as we’d like it to be.
There is another double path mentioned in well known literature.
“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and
broad is the road that lead to destruction, and many enter
through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that
leads to life, and only a few find it.
Matthew 7:13-14
Someone asked him, “Lord, are only a few people going
to be saved?” He said to them, “Make every effort to enter
through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try
to enter and will not be able to.
Luke 13:23
It seems to me that often the way the Christian message is presented is that once you become a Christian you will find yourself on the wide and easy path. However the bible doesn’t say that. It says
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I
will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from
me, for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find
rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden
light.
Matthew 11:28-30
The important thing to note is that there is a burden. We are burdened without God and we are burdened when we walk with God but it is a different type of burden. The game plan given to us is exchange our burden for his, learn from him and we will find the burden light and we will be able to rest.
We are also told,
Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trails
of many kinds…
James 1:2
Surely this means we should expect trials. We would be naïve to expect a wide, smooth and clear path when clearly we are being warned that the way will be tough.
This seems to indicate that God is more interested in developing us as people than he is in making sure we are comfortable along the way. God wants to shape us into the people he knows we can be, not into a group of people who sit in the comfort of their own lounge room, debating theories of eschatology or the minutiae of theology, while the world passes them by.
The bible uses concepts like purifying and refining. Think about that for a minute when you purify water you boil it and when you refine metal? Great heat. We often don’t like to think about that. When the fires of life are turned up and the pressure rises it’s very tempting to get out of the kitchen. God however wants us to stay.
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego literally were refined with great heat. We all know they came out, we focus on that but I think far more important is their ‘however’.
O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before
you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the
God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us
from your hand, o king. BUT EVEN IF HE DOES NOT, we
want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or
worship the image of gold you have set up.
Daniel 3:16-18 (emphasis mine)
These men knew they might die and they accepted that. They knew how to withstand the heat. Do we? Would we be able to stand our ground and do what we know to be right, what God is calling us to do, when the price could be so high? Can we keep our integrity when the pressure builds? Can we keep going forward when the trees close in and the path becomes rocky and difficult to see? Can we make the right choice?
So we are promised trials, races and fires, not to mention temptations, and we are not guaranteed a completion of the vision in our lifetime? So where does that leave the safe comfortable faith that seems to be promised a lot?
Hebrews 11 is the hall of faith, it’s kind of interesting to note that we seem to look at the names and skip right over the unnamed others listed at the end of that chapter.
Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained
and put in prison. They were stoned; they were sawed in two;
they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheep-
skins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated – the
world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts,
mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground. These were
all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what
had been promised.
Hebrews 11:36-39
These are the people who knew and understood that faith came with a price. There are vast numbers of people in our history who stand in that cloud of witnesses who understood that too. Agathonice of Pergamos; Agatha of Catania; Julitta of Caesaea; Afra of Augsburg; Crispina of Thagara; Perpetua, these women all gave their lives for their faith. Then there are those who stepped out into strange lands, unfamiliar cultures to bring their faith to those who didn’t know, these women knew hardship like a great many of us couldn’t possibly know. There are many, many women whose names we don’t know but who chose to live by the faith they professed, they forged trails and did incredible things, that’s the sort of faith that speaks to me. Theirs is a faith that isn’t flashy or showy, it doesn’t scream at you but they lived it.
There are many, many women around us whose actions aren’t publicised or written about but their faith is just as profound and they are often more influential than they realise: The woman who does her best to raise happy, well adjusted children in the face of poverty or other hardship; the woman who reaches out to others even though her life was almost destroyed at the hands of another; the young woman who miscarried the child she desperately hoped for who wraps her arms around the teenager who has just found out she is pregnant and doesn’t know what to do. There are many more examples everyday of these awesome women of faith I want to share one from my life. My mother was a woman like that. We didn’t have much and the hardships we faced were compounded by the fact my father was an alcoholic but she always did her best and taught me so many valuable lessons. While she never would have thought much about her influence in the lives of others when she died her funeral was standing room only out of the doors. People came from many miles away just to be there to say goodbye and many stood to share what she meant to them. Her faith was quiet, solid but very passionate, deep and true. That’s the sort of faith that speaks to me.
The fire, the passion, to hear what God was saying to them and the courage to do it, that’s inspiring. We’re not all called to be martyrs, and we’re not all called to be missionaries but we are all called, and if we answer that call my guess is it’s going to require us to step out of our comfort zones and allow God to stretch us.
I wonder if you could say that modern faith has two roads, the narrow and the wide and we’ve fooled ourselves into believing that the wide path is the narrow one by virtue of the fact it is narrower than the one the world outside travels down. After all God answers prayer, and wants us to live in abundance, all we need to do is follow a few simple rules.
I don’t know how my courage is, I’m trying everyday to step where I believe God is asking me to step. All I know is that I want something deeper than the faith I’ve known for so very long.
Also when you think about it, for all the problems there are on the narrow road, the path less travelled hasn’t proven unpassable, look at the people who have gone before us. We all start from a different place and we all travel it differently but we have chosen to travel it. So I say hello weary traveller, lets walk together for a while. You are not alone.
Robert Frost wrote ‘Two Roads diverged in the yellow wood……..’ That’s what every day is like. We have many choices to make everyday, which road do you take?
I like the idea of taking the road less travelled I’ve always felt a little out of kilter with the general population. Sad as it may seem crime, shattered families and dysfunctional lives seem to be the norm, and the goals we strive for appear more important than the means we use to achieve them. Am I the perfect model of a life of integrity and living responsibility? No not by along shot. I try but I’m not always successful. Sometimes integrity is more difficult, less self serving and not as clear cut as we’d like it to be.
There is another double path mentioned in well known literature.
“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and
broad is the road that lead to destruction, and many enter
through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that
leads to life, and only a few find it.
Matthew 7:13-14
Someone asked him, “Lord, are only a few people going
to be saved?” He said to them, “Make every effort to enter
through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try
to enter and will not be able to.
Luke 13:23
It seems to me that often the way the Christian message is presented is that once you become a Christian you will find yourself on the wide and easy path. However the bible doesn’t say that. It says
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I
will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from
me, for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find
rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden
light.
Matthew 11:28-30
The important thing to note is that there is a burden. We are burdened without God and we are burdened when we walk with God but it is a different type of burden. The game plan given to us is exchange our burden for his, learn from him and we will find the burden light and we will be able to rest.
We are also told,
Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trails
of many kinds…
James 1:2
Surely this means we should expect trials. We would be naïve to expect a wide, smooth and clear path when clearly we are being warned that the way will be tough.
This seems to indicate that God is more interested in developing us as people than he is in making sure we are comfortable along the way. God wants to shape us into the people he knows we can be, not into a group of people who sit in the comfort of their own lounge room, debating theories of eschatology or the minutiae of theology, while the world passes them by.
The bible uses concepts like purifying and refining. Think about that for a minute when you purify water you boil it and when you refine metal? Great heat. We often don’t like to think about that. When the fires of life are turned up and the pressure rises it’s very tempting to get out of the kitchen. God however wants us to stay.
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego literally were refined with great heat. We all know they came out, we focus on that but I think far more important is their ‘however’.
O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before
you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the
God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us
from your hand, o king. BUT EVEN IF HE DOES NOT, we
want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or
worship the image of gold you have set up.
Daniel 3:16-18 (emphasis mine)
These men knew they might die and they accepted that. They knew how to withstand the heat. Do we? Would we be able to stand our ground and do what we know to be right, what God is calling us to do, when the price could be so high? Can we keep our integrity when the pressure builds? Can we keep going forward when the trees close in and the path becomes rocky and difficult to see? Can we make the right choice?
So we are promised trials, races and fires, not to mention temptations, and we are not guaranteed a completion of the vision in our lifetime? So where does that leave the safe comfortable faith that seems to be promised a lot?
Hebrews 11 is the hall of faith, it’s kind of interesting to note that we seem to look at the names and skip right over the unnamed others listed at the end of that chapter.
Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained
and put in prison. They were stoned; they were sawed in two;
they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheep-
skins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated – the
world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts,
mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground. These were
all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what
had been promised.
Hebrews 11:36-39
These are the people who knew and understood that faith came with a price. There are vast numbers of people in our history who stand in that cloud of witnesses who understood that too. Agathonice of Pergamos; Agatha of Catania; Julitta of Caesaea; Afra of Augsburg; Crispina of Thagara; Perpetua, these women all gave their lives for their faith. Then there are those who stepped out into strange lands, unfamiliar cultures to bring their faith to those who didn’t know, these women knew hardship like a great many of us couldn’t possibly know. There are many, many women whose names we don’t know but who chose to live by the faith they professed, they forged trails and did incredible things, that’s the sort of faith that speaks to me. Theirs is a faith that isn’t flashy or showy, it doesn’t scream at you but they lived it.
There are many, many women around us whose actions aren’t publicised or written about but their faith is just as profound and they are often more influential than they realise: The woman who does her best to raise happy, well adjusted children in the face of poverty or other hardship; the woman who reaches out to others even though her life was almost destroyed at the hands of another; the young woman who miscarried the child she desperately hoped for who wraps her arms around the teenager who has just found out she is pregnant and doesn’t know what to do. There are many more examples everyday of these awesome women of faith I want to share one from my life. My mother was a woman like that. We didn’t have much and the hardships we faced were compounded by the fact my father was an alcoholic but she always did her best and taught me so many valuable lessons. While she never would have thought much about her influence in the lives of others when she died her funeral was standing room only out of the doors. People came from many miles away just to be there to say goodbye and many stood to share what she meant to them. Her faith was quiet, solid but very passionate, deep and true. That’s the sort of faith that speaks to me.
The fire, the passion, to hear what God was saying to them and the courage to do it, that’s inspiring. We’re not all called to be martyrs, and we’re not all called to be missionaries but we are all called, and if we answer that call my guess is it’s going to require us to step out of our comfort zones and allow God to stretch us.
I wonder if you could say that modern faith has two roads, the narrow and the wide and we’ve fooled ourselves into believing that the wide path is the narrow one by virtue of the fact it is narrower than the one the world outside travels down. After all God answers prayer, and wants us to live in abundance, all we need to do is follow a few simple rules.
I don’t know how my courage is, I’m trying everyday to step where I believe God is asking me to step. All I know is that I want something deeper than the faith I’ve known for so very long.
Also when you think about it, for all the problems there are on the narrow road, the path less travelled hasn’t proven unpassable, look at the people who have gone before us. We all start from a different place and we all travel it differently but we have chosen to travel it. So I say hello weary traveller, lets walk together for a while. You are not alone.
1 comment:
Thanks! Good job!
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