Where the Rubber Meets the Road

There's really just one great decision in life, and it must be made over and over again. That decision is the decision whether to take the road that is easiest, the road that seems the safest and most comfortable, or to take the right road. It's not that the safe and easy road is always the wrong one. No; sometimes it's easiest on us and safer too to do the right thing, but often it seems that doing the right thing is uncomfortable and dangerous. Sometimes it's even fatal. It's the best of both worlds when what is safe and easy and what is right coincide, but far too often, they are radically opposed.

For those brave souls like Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Corrie Ten Boom, and Raoul Wallenberg who stood against the evils of the Nazi regime, the safe and easy decision would have been to say, like Cain, "Am I my brother's keeper?" and sit idly and apathetically by while millions went to their deaths. No; they chose to heed Jesus' words and say, "Yes, of course; I am my brother's keeper!" and fight the dark madness of the Holocaust.

Theirs was a difficult decision, for to speak out against injustice or to help, to rescue or shelter those the Nazis had targeted for extinction was to share in their awful fate. The courageous pastor-theologian Bonhoeffer died at the end of a hangman's noose for helping Jews escape, participating in a failed coup against Hitler, and boldly defending the Gospel of Christ while few in Germany would. The Dutch resister, Corrie Ten Boom, lost her father and endured the hells of Ravensbruck for loving her Jewish neighbors as herself by hiding them in her home. For imitating Jesus by leaving his luxurious life in Sweden to go to Nazi-occupied Hungary and help rescue 100,000 Hungarian Jews from certain death, the diplomat Wallenberg found himself in a war zone as the Red Army approached. A victim of Soviet paranoia about Western spies, he purportedly died in a Soviet prison two years after the war.

This was indeed The Cost of Discipleship for these three heroes of the Second World War. What about those heroes of the faith from Scripture who chose what was right instead of that which was comfortable, easy, and safe? Consider Abraham, Moses, Joshua and Caleb, the prophets, Mary and Joseph, the 12 Apostles, and Paul. All of these great players in salvation history sacrificed their ease, safety, and comfort, and some even sacrificed their lives, to do what God called them to do. Didn't Jesus suffer all this and more to do the will of the Father?

Jesus and John Wayne

I've spent this summer off from college trying to escape the fears and questions I have about my future. I've spent my time with nose in book, eyes glued to the TV, hoping for something that will satisfy or at least take my mind off my existential struggle. It has not succeeded, so I'm going to chart a new course in which I seek to figure out where I'm going for my tomorrow. I told myself prior to the start of the summer that I would spend some time to reflect on where I'm headed, and now I make good on that promise.

One place I know I'm headed for is home. The question is, What's my arrival and journey there going to look like? What's my road and where's my home? Well, my road home is the path less traveled. It's straight and narrow, and it's the only road there. Following Jesus Christ is my road home, and my home is not of this world. It's a heavenly home not made by hands that I'm looking for.

The truth is, though, that while I know where I'm going, I know the way there, and the company's the best, I'm not heading that way confidently and resolutely. Oh, I've heard that that place is an untamed and glorious frontier, that the road there is the greatest adventure of all, and that the guide is a wild rebel of a man who sticks closer than a brother and has all the power, wisdom, and beauty of the universe in his grasp, but I also know of the hardships along the way. I know there's going to be fierce opposition. There's a cunning and persistent enemy out there waiting to ambush us. We're definitely going to take some wounds and some losses. And there's going to be fatigue, hunger, thirst, and probably some loneliness along the way. This trip's definitely not going to be comfortable and convenient.

I'm not at all like the trail boss. He's not bothered at all by the trouble we'll encounter. He's wild, brave, strong, and wise, and he's well experienced with all the troubles of the journey. In fact, no one knows more about suffering and hardship than he does, so he's really tough. He knows our adversary well too. He knows all about his schemes and tactics, and he's already given him the beating of his life once and swears he'll do it again. He also knows that wild and beautiful country we're headed to. In fact, they say that's where he's from. He more than makes up for my weaknesses, and there's no one else I'd rather have by side in a fight. So what am I so afraid of? Why am I only taking steps forward tentatively? Why am I just aimlessly wandering that general direction at the back of the train instead of mounting up and riding at the front with the trail boss?

I've seen some of the other men and women on this journey who've taken the time to get to know him and be taught by him and have become like him. Why can't I be like them? I have to remember that at one time they were just as weak, timid, and fearful as I am now. But the boss, he's gracious and he's willing to teach all those who will listen. So there's no more excuse for settling for mediocrity. It's time to become a man like Jesus and John Wayne.