Monday, June 22, 2009

Don't Want to Go Through the Motions

Check it out:
http://www.worshiphousemedia.com/mini-movies/13534/The-Motions--Matthew-West

Sidewalks and Paths

I’ve a question: where’s the adventure in walking on sidewalks?
“Doug, you walk the sidewalks where I walk and you would see. It’s not safe!”
Okay, I’ll allow that. However I still ask the question: where’s the adventure in walking on sidewalks?
Give me a path to walk any time and I’ll take it. You never know where a path will lead or what it will throw your way. When I was young, living on an almond ranch in Capay Valley, we had to be careful of rattlesnakes. No problem! It was part of the adventure walking the path.
Today, we’re civilized and with the exception of places like the mountains, or a beach access, paths hardly exist.
If sidewalks are a sign of being civilized, perhaps we’re to civilized. We’ve lost nature’s ultimate visual reality—walking paths. Sidewalks erase adventure. They’re too predictable.
In our search for adventure, we’ve settled instead for virtual reality video games, where adventuring is artificial. Or, shows where others do the adventuring and we “spectate.”
As followers of Christ, have we become sidewalk Christians? Following prescribed ways of coming and going. In so doing have we lost the adventure of taking a path that leads to where we’re not sure, or do not know?
God said he would direct our paths. He’s the God of adventure. In fact he put the “advent” in adventure. (Leonard Sweet)
Let’s decide together to get off the sidewalk of coming and going like we always have and start walking a path to where we’re not sure, or do not know. (For those who’ve lost the spirit of adventure, here’s his promise: “[My] word is a lamp to [your] feet and a light for [your] path.” Psalm 119:105)
By faith lets hike the path. Sidewalks are for sissies. (Now I am in trouble.)
Yours for the path set before us,
Doug