From Here to There

Anyone who explores what it means to follow the one called Jesus soon discovers that Jesus doesn't embody a God who allows much standing still. Quite the contrary, you see a whole lot of moving people from here to there.

• Don't stay here in your comfortable homeland Abram and Sarai. I need you to go there - to a land you've never seen before.
• Don't stay here in the comfort of a king's palace, Moses. Run off to Midian for a while, then get your keester back to Egypt to lead your people there, to a promised land.
• Don't stay here on this side of the Jordan River, Joshua. Go there - to Jericho - and make the walls fall down.
• Don't stay here tending sheep, David. Go there - into the valley where a giant wants to humiliate you, then kill you.
• Don't stay here in Galilee, Jesus. Go to there to Jerusalem and die there.
• Don't stay here in this tomb, Jesus. Get up and smack sin and death in the face.
• Don't just stay here on the ground outside of Damascus, blind and shocked, Saul of Tarsus. Get up and go there - to the entire empire, and tell them about the One who knocked you down and picked you back up!

So, I guess if you're looking for a faith that will just let you stay here, (whatever "here" is for you), and remain comfortable and unchallenged, don't pick this one. Who knows what kind of there God might have in store for you.

From the river, which is all about not staying here, but floating and paddling on to the next there...I'll see you around the next bend.