August is here and the parents give that familiar cheer as they wave goodbye to their kids boarding the bus headed toward school. The kids on board stare out the bus windows with frowns because they know their fun filled days of summer are gone. Ah yes the seasons of time.
Speaking of picking up the kids for school, recently I was asked to pick someone who had just been released from prison. He was coming off the bus at the station downtown. I asked Jay, my friend who had asked for this favor, “How will I recognize him?’ He said to me, “He will be the one that will stand out in the crowd. He will be carrying no luggage and will have nothing but the clothes on his back. He will stick out from all the others. He will have that look of freedom on his face that none other will have.” Jay was right.
As we left the bus station, I couldn’t help but think, “Shouldn’t that be us, the church? Shouldn’t we stick out in this world?” We should be so different that when we pass by a crowd we can easily be pointed out as one who seeks another city. We are strangers and pilgrims in this life. We are just passing through. Why then do we spend so much time trying to fit in? And why do we try to have so much stuff? We talk like the world, we act like the world, we have so much of the world in us that they can’t tell us apart from them. When he sent the twelve disciples, he sent them out with nothing but a staff. These days we have two carry-ons and a checked bag when we go outside our country to minister. I have been guilty of this, but I want to be different from this world. And that look of freedom expressed so much on my new friend’s face was like a light that lit up the car. Its time church that we begin to light this world with our light of grace, our light of freedom from our sins. And most of all let us have nothing in this life we carry save our cross as we follow on to know Him more.
Seeking another city, Pilgrim Rick