christianity

Narrow Road

Pastor Lee spoke Sunday at the Korean Episcopal Church of the Holy Spirit. He had a three point sermon.

To follow Christ we must make choices

for tomorrow and not for today,
based on intangibles rather than tangibles, and
in direct opposition to what the easy way out seems to be.

If we make our choices only on what seems important today, meaning immediate, then we are animal in nature. God created us to love Him and have dominion over the animals


Genesis 1:26

. To remain more than animal we have to fight that moment, we have to train ourselves to recognize the greater goal, and we have to have endurance to run the race to the finish (tomorrow) and not collapse because our legs our tired (today).

A worm that wants to eat its way happily into a big juicy apple climbs a tree. His instinct, his belief tells him this tree bears a prize, the big juicy apple. And so even though it cannot see the apple, it climbs. It climbs with the great belief that upon reaching the top of the tree, it will be rewarded with what, at least during the climb, is quite intangible to him during his journey. Only at the realization of his arduous passing does his goal become real; but it begins with his belief.

Ah the Narrow Road. The road less traveled. I took a sail-boarding lesson once. The teacher said something that has caused me to ponder for years. He pointed out that it takes a long time and a lot of hard work to learn to sail-board. He said that people prefer to gas up a jet-ski and zoom around the lake, that they didn't have the patience to learn sail-boarding.

So, I've jet-skied, and it was a lot of fun. It was potentially more fun than sail-boarding, in the short run. True, I didn't have time to learn to sail-board, and as he intimated, I needed no time to learn to jet-ski. But ever since that day, I have looked upon sail-boarders with a renewed awe. They have something a rare few can have. They traveled the Narrow Road.

Sure, if you have the time and money, you can travel the narrow sail-boarding road and still spend some time on the jet-ski. That's where this analogy breaks down terribly. You can't travel the Narrow Road with Jesus without (a) making choices for the long run and avoiding immediate pleasure which would weaken a relationship with the father and without (b) climbing that arduous path of intangible promise whilst knowing deeply that the prize awaits.

Last Updated: 2009-02-07 08:26:25