Friday, February 16, 2018
Show me the
right path, O Lord; point out the road for me to follow. Lead me by your truth and teach me, for you
are the God who saves me. All day long I
put my hope in you.
Psalm 25:4-5(NLT)
We are two days in
on a forty day journey. Lent begins with
Ash Wednesday and concludes with Holy Saturday.
For those doing the math that’s seven weeks and three days, and
just doesn’t add up. The days you must
subtract are the 6 Sundays in that period, which, technically, are mini-Easter
resurrection celebrations, and not part of the Lenten emphasis in the Christian
year[2]. This is only important as a reminder to keep
Sundays joyful and hopeful, even/especially in Lent.
Yesterday we heard
from my preacher friend who shared about his family-hike up to the mountain-top
at Hanging Rock. It is important that you
trust
the pathway in the growing seasons, with all the leaves on the
trees concealing the goal of getting to the top. But during the winter seasons the leaves are
on the ground and you see a little bit clearer through the bleak, gray
skies. Colder, grayer, emptier are these
times, forcing you to reflect on the pathway to the place of your call!
Today let’s
reflect on what you carry with you. A
serious walker carries a stick. My
friend learned that about hiking. He
told me that the stick is so important, and more so for the journey back down
the mountain than the climb to the top.
He said that, on the way up your eyes are always pointed up, but when
you’ve reached the top and spend time looking around at the top of the
mountain, it’s hard to stop. You want
more of those views, and, on the way down your eyes tend to seek out those
views; you look straight-out, instead of looking down to the path. Sometimes you don’t watch where you’re
going. That stick you carry is a
connection with the ground upon which you’re walking; it steadies you. It locates loose rocks and soft ground spots which
may cause you to slip and get injured.
When you’re travelling down the mountain, gravity and momentum makes any
slip that much more potentially dangerous.
The Psalmist’s
prayer is for the LORD to teach/show him the right path, and the stick for leaning-on
is truth. If there is anything a serious
walker needs, it’s that stick; the same can be said for a disciple of Jesus
Christ…leaning on truth is not important, it is critical to every step you take
on this journey.
The truth about the
truth is like the importance of the walking stick. It only takes one loose rock or spongy
pathway patch to cause a slip, fall and dangerous injury on a mountain
trail. In the same way, one slip from
the truth can destroy so much of the progress you’ve made in following
Jesus.
Many bits of so-called
wisdom in life may let you down; that walking-stick of truth is not one of them.
For You Today
Sticking to the truth like it has
been welded to your soul may get you in trouble with the world occasionally,
because it is hard for some people to deal with absolute truth. But clinging to the walking stick of truth in
your faith journey will NEVER get you in hot water
with the Father.
Lent, my friends, is not at all
about pleasing the world…it’s all about picking up a cross.
You chew on that as you hit the Rocky
Road; have a blessed day.
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