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FRIDAY THOUGHT 7/18/08

Christ’s Traffic Cops
 
Call it commitment.  In poker, it’s either “fold ‘em” or “all in,” that moment when you make a decisive, game-changing decision.  In life, there are times when we are at a crossroads, a place where we cannot just keep loping along down the road.  We have to make a choice.  It’s nice to have a little guidance.
 
After a real tough and unexpected setback in my life — during which I actually cussed a blue streak at God and ripped the cross off my neck in anger — I realized I had to make a decision.  Either God was my God, the God I trusted, no excuses … or He wasn’t.  I was either in all the way, or I was out all the way.  Well, I found that I could not turn my back.  I could not deny what I knew.  So, I fearfully asked God for forgiveness (in a less frightening time, I’d say I’d invoked the “77 Times” rule: Matthew 18:22).  Confident in my “forgiven-ness,” I turned sharply onto the “all in” fork at the crossroads, and only occasionally look back now and then.
 
My real point:  I had a lot of  help from people who supported me and offered me guidance and direction — Christ’s traffic cops.  To all of you who helped me, perhaps even unknowingly for some of you, I thank you.  I don’t know if I could have done it without you.   
 
My other real point:  When you hit those crossroads (and I suspect there are more ahead, just waiting) don’t deny what you know to be true.  Just as important, I urge you to sign on as one of Christ’s traffic cops, so that when a friend, family member or  total stranger approaches that sometimes confusing “all in” or “fold ‘em” intersection, you can offer guidance to one more traveler stumbling along the broken road of faith.  God bless. — jri
 
 ”You are my God.”
        –    Psalm 31:14