February 25, 2014
Stay on the Path
I just re-watched the apocalyptic movie The Book of Eli starring Denzel
Washington (2010). Eli is on a 30-year unstoppable mission to get his precious
cargo, the only Bible in existence, to a west coast sanctuary. There are hoodlums
and thugs along the way, and in one scene Eli, from a hillside advantage,
witnesses a gang attack of a woman on the highway below. He did not intervene,
but averting his eyes he said to himself, “Stay on the path, it’s not your
concern. Stay on the path, it’s not your concern. Stay on the path, it’s not
your concern.” I’m reminded that Jesus
did not minister to everyone He came into contact with either, rather He stayed
on the path that led Him to the cross. I wonder if we believers aren’t often distracted
by the cries of the world, but the situations are really not our concern.
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Gail;
-----There was at least one time Jesus helped someone without being asked when He cast the demons from the possessed man of the Gerasenes. He didn’t go around seeking out everyone with any infirmity to heal. You’re so right. He stayed on His course of teaching the people and moving toward the cross where He would spiritually heal everyone who asked of Him.
-----I love to note all the ways Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. This is certainly another aspect of His being “the way”. He was focused on His purpose and driven towards His goal, though He dealt properly with the “distractions” which did present themselves. Though He worked on the path, He continued along the path. Besides His being the way to God, His way is also the way to go that way.
-----Note the seeming selfishness in salvation. I will attend nothing, do nothing, or be interrupted by nothing which will interfere with me completing my call to come to Christ for my salvation. There is a lot of “me” about that. But I am to God an “other” for loving. He gives if I come; I do come and receive. This displaces my way in the Lord one degree from selfishness. Then the rest of the selfishness of it is displaced as far as the East is from the West in my way being in His way of attending with servitude whatever presents itself as a call for my personal responsibility. So He did not seek out every wound of the Chinese or the Incas or the Australian aborigines or the pygmies or the Eskimos. But He responsibly dealt with everyone along His path who called upon Him for help.
-----I suppose I am not missionary material, or even evangelist material. They go searching for pygmies, Eskimos, aborigines, etc. Theirs is a blessed calling. But it is interesting how the lives of all us other people in the Lord do serve very different purposes. We are neither missionaries nor evangelists, because we are the pygmies and aborigines. We have wives and children to feed, clients and customers to please, friends and neighbors to help, and strangers to respect, because this is life going on. They’re all in our paths being to us as much a part of our way as the cross was to jesus. For we yet live in a physical world requiring someone to continue hacking at the weeds for these people, making way for survival and civilization. Most must then commit to paths involving the production and maintenance of survival’s requirements. And those paths can be found in His way.
-----I don’t think anything in or of this world is not my concern. Everything which crosses my mind calls for some understanding or decision or correlation or minimal emotion at least. But I highly suspect that is not the sense of “concern” you meant. Far, far, far fewer concerns can have my time, effort, or attention. They must come into my path and ask. And they must be doable by me. All of the rest get my prayer, even if it is only in that overall prayer of “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done.”
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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