Traveling

SCRIPTURE: Ephesians 4:1-3 MSG I want you to get out there and walk—better yet, run!—on the road God called you to travel. I don’t want any of you sitting around on your hands. I don’t want anyone strolling off, down some path that goes nowhere. And mark that you do this with humility and discipline—not in fits and starts, but steadily, pouring yourselves out for each other in acts of love, alert at noticing differences and quick at mending fences.

THOUGHT: Paul’s call to Christian action echoes down through two thousand years into my living room, where I most often pray, write and plan my days.

He urges us – and even creates a sense of enthusiasm – about the journey down whatever road God calls us to travel. It will be an adventure, complete with potholes, downhill coasts, and upriver rows, but where to start? We don’t always know, but Paul gives a few hints to get us started:

1) don’t sit around on your hands,
2) don’t wander around like a squirrel with ADD,
3) approach the day with humility – be open to God’s Spirit, moving you like the wind (John 3:8),
4) approach the day with discipline – pray, commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust him, and he will help you (Psalm 37:5),
5) as you go, look for people who need love and peace with God, and
6) repeat.

PRAYER: I see in you, Lord Jesus, where Paul got his ideas about how to run the road God calls us to. This is how you lived and how we want to live too, excited about the next adventure, trusting you for ways around or through the potholes, strength for the upriver rows and joy on the downhill coasts.