Traveling Light (Discussion Fodder)
I've noticed in the last few days that my black back (the paratrooper one) is getting heavier. It happens slowly...I add a book that I want to read. Then, there's a couple of CD's that I take to work. There's a few papers that I want to take home to Deb. Eventually, the bag is no longer the lightweight tool I wanted to use to keep essentials close at hand. It's become a burden, something that I resent carrying.
My life is like that, too. I want to travel light, so that when God tells me "move," I can move. But there are so many things that take up my time, energy, money and thoughts that it gets more and more difficult to act on his prompting.
As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go."
Jesus replied, "Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head."
He said to another man, "Follow me." But the man replied, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father."
Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God."
Still another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family."
Jesus replied, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the Kingdom of God."
-- Luke 9:57-62
I firmly believe that the words "No" and "Lord" have no business being together. But just as dangerous is "Yes, Lord, but..."
I see things that I will need to jettison from my life in order to grow closer to Jesus; I'll leave them in a comment. What's your excess baggage?
My life is like that, too. I want to travel light, so that when God tells me "move," I can move. But there are so many things that take up my time, energy, money and thoughts that it gets more and more difficult to act on his prompting.
As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go."
Jesus replied, "Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head."
He said to another man, "Follow me." But the man replied, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father."
Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God."
Still another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family."
Jesus replied, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the Kingdom of God."
-- Luke 9:57-62
I firmly believe that the words "No" and "Lord" have no business being together. But just as dangerous is "Yes, Lord, but..."
I see things that I will need to jettison from my life in order to grow closer to Jesus; I'll leave them in a comment. What's your excess baggage?
Labels: Discussion Fodder
posted by Tom Henderson at
8:25 AM
3 Comments:
Over the holidays, I got way too comfortable with entertainment. A couple of new video games, a few new movies, and now I've got too many excuses not to get alone with God. I used to find a great joy in spending a quiet evening in scripture, digging into the meat of the word; I've traded that joy for mere happiness of a movie or an evening of gaming. I don't believe that either one is necessarily bad; I've just allowed myself to slip back into old, lazy patterns.
So, I need to go through my entertainment habits, and jettison some of them, in order to make room again for God to come close to me.
I care too much about what my mom and stepdad think, and that can sometimes get in the way of my relationship with God.
My mom and stepdad put down religious people and I don't feel like I can talk about God with them.
If God told me to move somewhere, my mom would complain about it and want me to stay in Minnesota.
Those words can really convict me to the core, but my knee-jerk reaction is often "extreme" in that I feel the need to put on an almost monk-like lifestyle: give up any and all earthy pleasures pack up the kids and move to the commune...of course that isn't the solution and is more likely exhibiting spiritual naivete than a true understanding of what it is to follow Christ today.
Post a Comment
<< Home