True to my leanings as a member of the all too short-lived Tangent
group, I let my mind veer off the path a bit while holding on to a thread of
the sermon as the good brother Lee preached about Saul’s conversion on the road to
Damascus. While Lee talked about the conversion experienced and love and
encouraged us to reconnect with our own I was struck by how much of the Lord’s
work occurs on the road just like Saul’s conversion.
Acts 9:1-6 “1Meanwhile Saul, still breathing threats and
murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest 2 and
asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any
who belonged to the Way, men or
women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. 3Now as he was going
along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around
him. 4He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’ 5He asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ The
reply came, ‘I am Jesus,
whom you are persecuting. 6But get up and enter the city, and you will
be told what you are to do.’”
And there are the two men walking on the road to Emmaus (Luke
14:13-35). Two men on the move discussing the events of the crucifixion and
reports of Christ’s body missing. Jesus appears and walks with them while their
eyes were kept from recognizing him. Jesus heard their story riddled with
unbelief and then explained the scriptures to them only to reveal himself in
the breaking of the bread.
The early church was known as ‘the Way’, the term used by Saul as
he hunted believers for persecution. Jesus himself spawned the term when he
said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one
comes to the Father except through me.” (John
14:6) Is Christ telling us
that he is less an institution than a way of life? I believe so and that we are
called to a life full of action and motion.
The Ethiopian Eunuch was sitting in his chariot reading the
prophet Isaiah. The Spirit had Philip join the chariot and engage the man in
discussion about whom the scriptures were written. As they went along they came
upon some water and the man asked to be baptized and Philip did so. Soon the
Ethiopian was on his way rejoicing as Philip had been spirited away. (Acts 8:26-40) The man was hungry and on the move and
the Lord met him on the way.
And,
for my motorcycle friends, I take this chariot story as an endorsement of
two-wheeled travel and that we can expect good things to happen as we travel
along.
I have found the principle of being met on the move to be true for
me. Rarely have I received clear direction while sitting like a lump waiting
for something to inspire me. Moving in the right direction or even down the
wrong trail, it has always been easier for me to be met while in motion. The
overriding theme of my experience during Mission Arizona weeks has been that God
would meet me on the way. My quiet times are mostly truncated due to the need
to keep the mission team moving along from fellowship to quiet time to work and
back again. The Spirit has always been faithful to meet me in some way, through
some person or other, during the course of the week as time and work moved
along. I am eternally thankful for that.
For clarification, let’s not confuse quieting one’s mind and life
to wait on the Lord with inaction. While our bodies may be still our spirits
are moving toward God. For me, it is one of the most strenuous of the spiritual
disciplines and difficult to master in my busy life. Waiting on the Lord is a
most necessary action.
While considering a title for this post ‘roadie’ came to mind but
I rejected it at first as not quite being right. Then I gave the term some more
thought about what it means, what it describes. In one of its many definitions
my Urban Dictionary describes it thusly, “A roadie is an individual who travels
to gigs with a band and assists with setup and organization.” I am okay with
this and I like the idea of being Jesus’ roadie, hitting the road with him,
setting things up for him to shine and be heard, carrying a loaf of bread for
him to feed the multitudes. And so, as long as I’m on the road and on the move,
at least spiritually, I’m happy and sure that I’ll be met.
There are a few things I picked up for myself considering these
accounts. If I’m cruising along the road, down the trail, physically or
metaphorically, I need to be aware that Jesus could come along side me like the
brothers walking to Emmaus. If I’m hungry and struggling with God’s Word, he
will provide a teacher as he did for the Ethiopian. And, even if I’m headed
somewhere to do the wrong thing though I believe it to be a godly errand,
Christ will reveal himself to me and tell me what I must do.
Let’s hit the road folks, be in motion, hungry for the Word, and
available for course changes as indicated.
In His grip, jerry
