In between devotional from a quote from Douglas Wilson...Bible reading week 26, day 5

Today is an in between chapter devotional as we give Haggai a breather and pick back up with chapter 2 on Monday.  I came across a great quote to think about from a magazine out of Canada called “Reformed Perspective”, May/June 2018, Volume 37, Issue No. 4 and from the regular column called “In A Nutshell - Tidbits Relevant, And Not So, To Christian Life.”  It is a quote titled, “Direction Matters” and by Douglas Wilson from Empires of Dirt.  A bio of Mr. Wilson says, 

“Douglas Wilson has been pastor Christ Church in Moscow, ID for more than thirty years. He is the author more than fifty books, including Same-Sex Mirage and Rules for Reformers. Doug writes prolifically at Blog and Mablog (dougwils.com), ranked as a top Christian blog for years running, and has debated the notorious atheist Christopher Hitchens in the celebrated documentary Collision. Doug has been married to Nancy for over forty years, and together they have three married children and seventeen grandkids so far.”

Here is the quote in its entirety.

“So if one man wants to drive to the East Coast in a Ford, he has more in common with a man who wants to do the same thing in a Chevy than he does with another man driving to the West Coast in a Ford.

Couple this with the fact that it is possible to pass someone on the road who is going the opposite direction, and at the precise moment when you do that, you are in exactly the same spot.

Further, somebody else who is going to the same place you are might be a hundred miles behind you.”

I read this quote over the weekend and re-read it again and again and saw something that I knew I would be able to use in the future to explain Scripture and human behavior.  Three sentences so lets take it one at a time.

“So if one man wants to drive to the East Coast in a Ford, he has more in common with a man who wants to do the same thing in a Chevy than he does with another man driving to the West Coast in a Ford.”

Direction does matter.  It matters more than what we are driving.  Maybe the obvious would be to look at this as a statement about nationalism.  A person in America, a Ford,  who is a Christian is traveling to the East Coast, heaven, and a person in Africa, a Chevy, who is a Christian is traveling to the same East Coast, heaven are in common.  But a person in America, a Ford who is a Christian traveling to the East Coast, heaven is not in common with a person in America, a Ford who is not a Christian traveling to the West Coast, hell.  Of course switch the values if you value a Chevy over a Ford and the West Coast over the East Coast.  Our commonality of being “in Christ” stretches beyond our borders and also is more eternal than our borders.  You could also adapt this quote to look at the person who is of the same family, Ford or Chevy, but one being “in Christ” and another “not in Christ” so going in different directions and someone from another family but “in Christ” would have more in common in the long run.  Our blood might determine our DNA and which earthly family we are a part of but it is Jesus’ blood that determines our eternal family which we will be together with forever.  This distinction could come into play in some of the decisions that we need to make and values that we need to hold that might not be popular to the family or the country that we live in.

The second sentence says,

“Couple this with the fact that it is possible to pass someone on the road who is going the opposite direction, and at the precise moment when you do that, you are in exactly the same spot.”

So the one driving the Ford going East and the one driving the Ford going West meet up for a fleeting moment passing each other.  They are in the same place at the same time for as long as the speed they are traveling allows.  That is a great picture of the length of our earthly life.  It is a fleeting moment.  We are of this country for a blip of time and we are of our earthly families for maybe even a shorter blip because we don’t all live the same length of time.  We have this time when Christians (Ford and east going) and non Christians (Chevy and west going) will occupy the same space.  Again, flip the values if you need to so you don’t miss the point and get hung up on arguing which one, Ford or Chevy, we will all be driving in heaven.   Again, we need to look at what direction the person is going before putting a tremendous amount of value in what they are promoting.  We seem to value what is new and popular that has come across our path of this life just recently over what is old and seemingly out of date that has been our foot path for years and leading to eternity.  We take our eyes off the road and look at the shiny car going the other way.  We allow our thoughts to entertain values going the other way and thinking this “new under the sun” is more important than what the Son of God says for all time.  

The third sentence concludes with,

“Further, somebody else who is going to the same place you are might be a hundred miles behind you.”

We have more in common with the Christian headed to heaven who isn’t even here yet and we would never meet on this earth than the one who is not a Christian and here at this moment of time but separated from us and God for eternity.  I love my country and I love my family but do I keep them in the proper perspective in relationship to my love for my God and my Savior Jesus Christ?  Do I take my ultimate direction in life from my family or country or from my God?  One never changes but all the others do and we have experienced it over the short amount of time we have on this little blue ball suspended in His universe.  How important it is to be a family member and a citizen that honors God but to know and respond for His glory even when it is unpopular with the knowledge that one always supersedes all the others.  Let us pray.

“Lord, Your direction is the ultimate.  Thank You for giving us others who are going in the same direction.  We pray that our earthly family members and those of our country, especially those leading, would also be on Your path.  Help us not to be tempted by what is going the other way.  Amen.”

Pastor Adam