The city I live in has just spent hundreds of thousands of dollars putting in asphalt walking, (some would say and biking) trails. On the other hand I have a friend who is hiking the Appalachion trail this summer. They are walking on a path or sometimes they are making their own path, either way it is not asphalt. These two things got me to thinking.
Real life, Abundant life, God’s divine design for life is not an asphalt trail that some find and others don’t. Only “churchy” people want it that clear! Real life is stumbling out, out into the creation of God, on path’s less traveled or in some cases never traveled.
God became man, we call that Incarnation! The idea that God left His environment and came into our limited existence is mind altering. He did not come to walk on an asphalt path. The “idea” of “Incarnation” pushes me out of, off of, my paved security. It forces me out into an existence that transforms and reveals and empowers life itself.
I have come believe that Jesus was at home everywhere, but he was never naturalized anywhere. We are called to walk everywhere but not become naturalized! To be “in” but not “of” this world does not mean we live “out” of this world! Or separated from it!
NO! It is a calling or a challenge for each of us to move beyond the end of the asphalt and encounter the creation that is here. To be “in” is to be alive!
The “Incarnational” life begins by saying and meaning these two-letter words: “i’m in.”
And it is that “In-ness” that motivates this adventure or can I say “mission”? Mission that is what I am on! A mission not so much to save the world but to discover and reveal who I am or whose I am or Who it is that is “IN” me.
So as I look out on my day…. I have two words for today — “I’M IN!”
