I am just now looking
through my blog subscriptions and one in particular has been posting strings of
self-help-style posts:
“5 Simple Ways To . . .”
“4 Warning Signs That .
. .”
“How To Solve 10 . . .”
“30 Second To . . .”
“Avoid These 4 . . .”
This is where we are, in
the age of fast, pat answers. Has someone written a computer program, having
found the algorithms of life that produce solutions to nearly every problem
imaginable? Don’t be fooled. It’s not that easy.
Life is a journey we all
make together. We are born, we will die; however, what takes place in the
“dash between the dates” is unique. Where is life’s journey taking us and
how do we know we’ve arrived? The beginning is definite, so when did we begin
to think the end is nebulous? How is it we’ve become convinced that the
challenges of the journey are met with simplistic answers? How did the human
race survive before the internet? Seems impossible.
One question that cannot
be answered in the algorithm is: “who am I?” See, as we travel the journey of
life, we get caught up in the journey and forget the one who is travelling. We
forget we are travelling with others. The only way to find the answer is to
return to our Maker.
“So you shall observe to
do just as the LORD your God has commanded you; you shall not turn aside to the
right or to the left. You shall walk in the way which the LORD your God has
commanded you, that you may life, and that it may be well with you, and that
you may prolong days in the land which you shall possess.” (Deuteronomy
5:32-33).
An idea is floating
around out there somewhere that says, “you can’t tell me how to live my life. I
am who I am--I am my own person.” Perhaps there is an element of truth to this:
I can’t tell you how to live, nor can I tell you how to be. It is unfair to be
compared to someone else. Yet, our Creator tells us how to live with the end
result of an abundant life. These words were originally said to an entire
nation who (at that time) had no place to call their own--they were on a journey.
No pat answers for them. No internet. Just the narrow way of doing what the
LORD God said. When they obeyed, they knew when they’d finally arrived.
