Long Traveled Walk
A Reflection on Luke 14: 25:33
November 3, 2004
"I look back on a road long traveled. I see the many faces and events that have been a part of my journey. Happily, I've written about the people and things of my life in a journal, a reflective account of what has happened to me since I turned sixteen.
When I was young, there wasn't a thing I couldn't do. I could build towers and take on armies, or, at least I thought I could. That's the pride of youth, a pride that lingers well beyond its time. But somewhere along the path, I began to hear Jesus speak and the words he spoke began to mean what He meant them to mean in the first place. He told me that only a fool would think of building a tower without first checking his pocketbook to see if there was enough cash in it to complete the task. And the same goes for taking on armies. Look behind yourself to see just how many men are standing there ready to fight. If there isn't the cash or the men, back off. It's far better to admit, he said, that you're a nincompoop at the outset rather than spending a lot of time and effort proving it. In other words, dump your pride and wake up to reality.
When Jesus talked to me about giving up all of my possessions before falling in line behind him, he wasn't talking about gold coins and rubies, but the foolish pride I hung onto. The kind of pride that had me believing that the world and its inhabitants all swirled around me and that the sun wouldn't come up unless I gave it an ok. Shocking as it may be, the world spins and the sun rises without me and the dawning of that awareness is the beginning of humility.
Humility is freedom! It is that moment when I realized that the mysterious path I walked day by day could not be walked without my hand in God's. The irony, of course, is that hand-bound to him I am free to follow and it is he who builds the high towers from which I see a bigger world and defeat the armies that would enslave me."