Fork in the Road

"Stay on the path that the Lord your God has commanded you to follow. Then you will live long and prosperous lives in the land you are about to enter and occupy." Deuteronomy 5:33 (NLT)

"There's a fork in the road but you never take it."[1]

It may depend upon our perspective or it may depend upon our character, but some would look at life and see it as a number of forks in the road, and choices we must make, as we navigate the one lifetime we have been given. Robert Frost is known for writing,

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.[2]

The complete stanza says,

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.[3]

Frost was often asked about the “sigh” in this poem and he was always enigmatic about it. What was the difference made? Was the difference a good difference or a bad difference? Perhaps it was an unknown difference.

A fork in the road, on the path of life, offers opportunities, choices, responsibilities, and temptations. In the movie,  A Wonderful Life, George Bailey has many opportunities and forks in his road. His choice at each one is a choice made out of loyalty. He chooses to serve the banking business his father started; he chooses to serve his brother; he chooses to serve the poor; he chooses to serve his town; and just when it looks like all of his choices will lead to suicide or prison, we find that he has chosen correctly and that he has also served his family.

Jayber Crow, the fictional barber in Wendell Berry’s book by the same name, has this to say about his path.

Now I have had most of the life I am going to have, and I can see what it has been. I can remember those early years when it seemed to me I was cut completely adrift, and times when, looking back at the earlier times, it seemed I had been wandering in the dark woods of error. But now it looks to me as though I was following a path that was laid out for me, unbroken, and maybe even as straight as possible, from one end to the other, and I have this feeling, which never leaves me anymore, that I have been led. I will leave you to judge the truth of that for yourself . . . there is no proof.[4]

There is no proof, and yet, there is always faith. There is no proof, and yet, there is always trust. You will have to judge the truth of that for yourself.

Works Cited:

Berry, Wendell. Jayber Crow: The Life Story of Jayber Crow, Barber, of the Port William Membership. Berkeley: Counterpoint, 2000.

Cuddy, Jim. Skyscraper Soul, "Watch Yourself Go Down," 2011 

Frost, Robert. The Road Not Taken. 2015. http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/173536 (accessed 04 11, 2016).

---

[1] Jim Cuddy; "Watch Yourself Go Down"; Skyscraper Soul, 2011.

[2] (Frost 2015)

[3] (Frost 2015)
[4] (Berry 2000)

Availability

Two views on availabilty:

"Why on God’s green Earth would you be on Twitter? Because first of all, the worst thing you can do is make yourself more available, right?"1 —George Clooney speaking to Esquire 

"Be of service. Whether you make yourself available to a friend or co-worker, or you make time every month to do volunteer work, there is nothing that harvests more of a feeling of empowerment than being of service to someone in need."2 Gillian Anderson

These opinions of George Clooney and Gillian Anderson are not necessarily in conflict with each other; but perhaps they show a difference in their personality types.

1 http://www.esquire.com/features/george-clooney-interview-1213-3
2 http://www.gilliananderson.ws/charities/

Entrusted with a Commission

This blog post will be of particular interest to those who are pastors and those who aspire to be pastors. There is much confusion about the role of a pastor and indeed the role of the church in this present time. These words by Donald Bloesch1 are encouraging, humbling, inspiring, and terrifying. These words are worthy of being read at pastoral ordination services.

Our position is that the pastor is an authority figure and a servant figure at the same time. He has been placed in his role by Christ himself through the inward calling of the Holy Spirit, though the congregation must recognize and ratify what Christ has done. The pastor must not lord it over the congregation but be an example of patience and humility. He must give guidance and direction when necessary. He is a resource person to be sure, but even more he is a spiritual director and confessor. He must not be detached from his people but must identify himself with their trials and sufferings. He must intercede for them daily in prayer . . . . He must seek to please God above all and not his congregation, but he must place no unnecessary stumbling blocks before his people that might prevent them from accepting and following the Gospel. He will be willing to share authority with gifted laypersons of the congregation, who are also priests, but he will not abdicate authority by simply parroting the prejudices of his people. His aim is not to help people adjust to their social and cultural environment but to direct them to God so that they will then be inspired to change their environment. He will see his role as a shepherd rather than fellow seeker, since he has been entrusted with a commission to make known the Gospel (1 Cor. 9:17,18). At the same time he will also see himself as a servant who will subordinate himself to his people in their requests and desires, who will make himself continually available to his people as an ambassador of Christ and an agent of reconciliation. Such a pastor will inspire those in his care also to be priests, to be intercessors and witnesses to the truth at home and at work. He will welcome reproof from his fellow Christians so long as it is done in charity and is based on Scripture. A church directed by such a pastor will indeed be a holy priesthood where all share in some way in the priestly and kingly and prophetic ministry of Christ. The gifts of the Holy Spirit will be in evidence not only in the pulpit but in Sunday school classes, youth groups, and prayer and Bible study groups. The laity will be the missionary arm of the church, for it is through their outreach in the community that the spiritually lost will hear the good news and will be brought into the worship and life of the church.
Donald Bloesch, Essentials of Evangelical Theology, p. 122, 123.

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_G._Bloesch

No Man is an Island

"No man is an island," wrote John Donne in 1624. His poem by the same name suggests that the things that each of us do affect others around us. We are all part of the community of humankind and what I do has an effect on the whole. I thought of this the other day as I went for a run. I was continuing to train for a competition that, because of life circumstances, I could no longer fit into my schedule. One part of my brain said, "Why should I run today? There is no race in your near future." Yet another part of my brain reminded me that I run not just for myself. I run to stay healthy so that I might be around for more time to take care of the needs of my wife and family. I run to inspire others to stay fit and healthy. I even run to affect the overall fitness level of my country. When statistics are run on how many people are physically active in Canada, I want to be one of the people that brings up the national average.

The same is true of other aspects of our lives. The decisions I make and the good or evil I choose to do affects others. There are extreme examples. If I choose to drink alcohol and drive there is a good chance that I might seriously injure or kill someone with my car. But there are less extreme examples as well. If I consider it my right to pursue my own selfish direction in life and not work at my relationship with my wife it affects my wife, my children, my friendships, and society as a whole. Every person who walks away from marriage and divorces their spouse adds to the statistics of divorce and makes it that much easier for others to believe that it is normal, natural, and okay. So each of us can recognize that we have an effect on the whole of our society.

The good that we can do also inspires others. When a person takes a week or two of their holidays to go to Haiti or Cuba or Uganda to help with a water project, serve the poor, or build a school, others are inspired to do the same. When we volunteer on a local school committee, community association, strata board, or flood relief effort, we challenge others to consider their part in serving others. Together we make a difference.

How do I want my life to be remembered by those who follow? What am I doing right now that is an inspiration or a distraction to others? We are all connected. No man or woman is an island.

'No Man is an Island'
No man is an island entire of itself; every man
is a piece of the continent, a part of the main;
if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe
is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as
well as any manner of thy friends or of thine
own were; any man's death diminishes me,
because I am involved in mankind.
And therefore never send to know for whom
the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.1

1 MEDITATION XVII; Devotions upon Emergent Occasions; John Donne; http://web.cs.dal.ca/~johnston/poetry/island.html

As To The Lord

The work of a Beethoven, and the work of a charwoman [cleaning lady], become spiritual on precisely the same condition, that of being offered to God, of being done humbly "as to the Lord." This does not, of course, mean that it is for anyone a mere toss up whether he should sweep rooms or compose symphonies. A mole must dig to the glory of God and a cock must crow. - C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory.


Lewis, C.S. The Weight of Glory. New York: Harperone, 2001, p. 55.

God at Work

Our community of faith was blessed to see God's redemptive hand at work this past week. Some of us have been serving a man who is a contemporary "leper" and an outcast from society. He is a man who spent a long time in prison for things he has done. We have walked with him for over two years providing him with support and accountability.

This week he gave a tour of the downtown east side of Vancouver to a group of Bible college students who were visiting our church. He showed them many of the services he had used, the Christian ministries that have been a help to him, and the shelter he had used when he had no other place to stay for a brief period of time.

Although this man is not yet a follower of Jesus, it is apparent that God is slowly breaking through to him. He knows much about Jesus from his interactions with our church and other ministries. He was able to give back some of what he has learned and served these young people by showing them around and giving them insight into the needs of the community.

A Lady of Little Faith

I have been reading The Brother's Karamozov by Fyodor Dostoevsky.* It is a brilliant book that will generously reward any reader. You can expect to read a few blog entries dealing with insights from this book.

Dostoevsky demonstrates remarkable knowledge of the human psyche in the chapter entitled "A Lady of Little Faith." An elder in the church is probing into motivations and false humility with a woman who claims to love all of mankind and yet wonders if she has the perseverance to continue to love mankind in difficult circumstances.

"I heard the exact same thing, a long time ago to be sure, from a doctor," the elder remarked. "He was then an old man, and unquestionably intelligent. He spoke just as frankly as you, humorously, but with a sorrowful humor. 'I love mankind,' he said, 'but I am amazed at myself: the more I love mankind in general, the less I love people in particular, that is, individually, as separate persons. In my dreams,' he said, 'I often went so far as to think passionately of serving mankind, and, it may be, would really have gone to the cross for people if it were somehow suddenly necessary, and yet I am incapable of living in the same room with anyone even for two days, this I know from experience. As soon as someone is there, close to me, his personality oppresses my self-esteem and restricts my freedom. In twenty-four hours I can begin to hate even the best of men: one because he takes too long eating his dinner, another because he has a cold and keeps blowing his nose. I become the enemy of people the moment they touch me,' he said. 'On the other hand, it has always happened that the more I hate people individually, the more ardent becomes my love for humanity as a whole.'"

The elder goes on to say that,

. . . active love is a harsh and fearful thing compared with love in dreams. Love in dreams thirsts for immediate action, quickly performed, and with everyone watching. Indeed, it will go as far as the giving even of one's life, provided it does not take long but is soon over, as on a stage, and everyone is looking on and praising. Whereas active love is labor and perseverance, and for some people, perhaps, a whole science.#

Too well I see myself in these remarks. Could it be that I am just like that doctor or the woman of little faith?

*Note, there are multiple spellings of this Russian name owing to the fact that it has been translated from Фёдор Миха́йлович Достое́вский. The two most common spellings are Dostoevsky and Dostoyevsky.

#Dostoevsky, Fyodor. The Brothers Karamozov. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002 edition, p 56-58.

Purpose in Life

In his book, "At The Crossroads," Charlie Peacock quotes John Henry Newman as saying,

God has created me to do Him some service; He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission. Therefore I
will trust Him. Whatever, wherever I am, I can never be thrown away. If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him; in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him; if I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him. My sickness, or perplexity, or sorrow may be necessary causes of some great end, which is quite beyond us. He does nothing in vain.