Direction 1.23.2025

    We still have some ice and snow hanging about. After a warming trend last weekend, it is down around 5 today. Degrees. Five (5, V) degrees. It’s cold. Since we still have accumulation, which is yet to melt, let me make some final observations about the weather. 

    I live at the crest of a hill. The church house is at the bottom of the hill. When there is snow and ice my pickup truck will not generally make it up the hill. So, for around a week (my wife had the AWD vehicle out of town) I was walking. The Parsonage on the Hill is west of the Church house. Every morning, I would bundle up and head east, down the hill to the closest of the many doors by which I could enter the building. At the end of the day, I would reverse course and make my way west, up the hill. 

    The direction was always absolutely the same. Neither the house nor the Church changed location. Yet each of those five or six trips over the course of a week was different. For me at least this served as a reminder that even when we choose a direction there are other factors that have an impact on the journey. In Philippians 3 Paul talks about his own background and the variety of obstacles that confront any of us who choose to follow Christ and make discipleship the defining characteristic of our lives. Each of us comes from a specific time and place. Each has a personal and unique origin story. When we choose to become a disciple of Jesus we have chosen to follow Him. He determines our direction, and we follow. 

    The obstacles we confront can be a direct result of the decision. Certain cultural and social assumptions set us in opposition to the world around us. Had we not chosen Christ, presumably those difficulties would not have occurred. The direction we go determines the nature and difficulty of the obstacles. As 21st century citizens of the United States those cultural obstacles are different from those confronted by persons who live in different places. We choose the same direction but confront different kinds of obstacles.  

    Having chosen our course we must prepare to follow that course—following Jesus— in our context. When I was walking about town I didn’t rush out of my house in my short pants and flip-flops to walkabout in the snow, ice, and cold. I put on appropriate pants for the cold. I wore a heavy sport-coat or sweater I wore an overcoat, scarf, watch-cap, and gloves.  I put my muck boots on and tucked in my cuffs so that I didn’t have cold or wet feet. I used a large walking stick to make sure I maintained my footing. None of those preparations changed the conditions they simply enabled me to negotiate the environment. 

    Likewise, discipleship requires proper preparation for the environment in which we will “Walk the walk”. You will need to know scripture and be able to properly apply Biblical principles to a wide variety of circumstances. You will need to have the right tools—a walking stick perhaps, and a resiliency to cultural snow drifts and icy conditions.  

    Becoming a Christian means deciding to follow a specific path. Our direction is determined by discipleship. We do not have the ability to determine the climate. It is not uncommon for us to complain about circumstances beyond our control. The better choice, following Paul’s example is to press on.

“Philippians 3:13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, Philippians 3:14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:13-14 ESV)

     The ultimate destination—mature Christlikeness is worth all the investment and preparation to make sure we follow Him as closely as possible. The snow may be deep, the ice may be slick, the wind biting, and the cold threatening but the goal is worthwhile.