Leaving the Crowd Behind

It's hard going against the crowd.

I remember in college, often my friends would meet to go to the cheap-o movies.  A movie theater in town showed second-run movies (movies out of main theaters but not quite on DVD) for a discounted price (usually $2 a movie), so it was a cheap night out for a bunch of college students.  We'd meet up at the theater and pick a movie to watch.

I have to tell you, I watched a lot of movies I had no desire to see.  I even watched some of them more than once.  I enjoyed the fellowship with friends more than I enjoyed the film I was watching.  I saw some truly terrible films in the name of friendship.

There's nothing wrong with making sacrifices in the name of friendship.  Seeing some bad movies in order to hang out with friends is a small price to pay.  The conversations and late-night dinners afterwards always made it worthwhile.

But what if the choice was much harsher than seeing a movie.  In Matthew 7:13-14, Jesus tells us that there are two paths on our journey of life.  One path is broad and leads to destruction.  Many people take that path.  The other is narrow and leads to life.  Very few people find it.

The narrow path is the one less traveled.  Not many people will go that way.  Some of your friends will chose to walk the broad path.  It's fun.  It's where the crowd is.  It's full of noise and celebration and acceptance.  It's what they're comfortable and familiar with.

"Come on," they'll say.  "We're having so much fun.  You can stay a while longer."  They'll entice you to stay and join them on their path to destruction.  If everyone else is headed there, it may seem like the place to be.  It's not.

They won't want to join you on the narrow path.  That path means following Jesus with everything that you've got.  Not many people traverse that road.  If not so many are going, it's hard to get others to join in.  You may have to say "no" to certain choices.  You will seek God's direction instead of your own.  You will do things that others will say doesn't make sense.  Not everyone can follow that path.

Can you leave your friends behind to follow Jesus?  That's a tough question.  It's also a real one.  We don't always talk about this in Christianity, but often choosing to follow Jesus means choosing to leave others behind.  Not everyone will join you on the path.  The hard part is you can't make them join you either. 

If you follow Jesus, some of your friends may not understand.  Some of them - not all but some - may choose to end the friendship. 

Jesus says narrow is the path to life.  Not everyone will follow you to salvation.  Some may not want to give up the crowds or the lifestyle or the direction of their life. 

Jesus says few will find it.  Some of your friends won't even look.

So, are you willing to follow Jesus at all cost?  Will you take the path less chosen?  Can you leave behind those who try to bring you back to the broad path?

Narrow is the path of life.  Few will find it.  Be one of the few.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Devotion to a false god

Image
Last week, at Disney World, I went to retrieve our stroller from the stroller parking section.  As I searched among the hundred or so strollers, I finally found mine and started to move it.  As I pulled, it snagged on a woman's garment.  Panicked, I looked up and saw it was a Muslim women in full Muslin dress.  Her body was completely covered.  Only a slit for her eyes was visible.  I was careful not to yank, and I tried to apologize as the hook of the handle caught part of her garment.  She didn't say a word and we both quietly went on our ways. As I walked away, I felt pity on her.  For one, it's Disney World in June in Florida.  I strode along in shorts and a very thin T-shirt.  Both were soaked in sweat.  I had already consumed two bottles of water and still felt weary.  She was dressed head to toe in heavy garments.  I can't imagine how hot she was pushing a stroller with two kids through a mass of people in humid air and on hot pavement. Secondly, she dres
Read more

Time for an examination

Image
For my seminary class on counseling, I had to read a book about anxiety and worry.  In the book, the author, Archibald Hart, made the case that sometimes worry can be good. He gave the example of worrying about an illness - in the case a spot on the skin that could be cancerous.  Since skin cancer is a very real, and deadly, possibility, your worrying about it should spurn you to have it examined.  In that case, it's a healthy form of worrying.  It's more natural concern than worry, even when we dwell on it.  It's our brain's mechanism to check out anomalous things. For me, Matthew 7:21-23 is one of those "spots" you need to worry about.  In the passage, Jesus says many people who drive out demons, preach, teach and do miracles will not gain access into the Kingdom of Heaven.  They'll have all the outward signs of a believer but have no real, genuine relationship with Jesus Christ. That's a very scary proposition.  It addresses those of us who
Read more

God Uses Conflict

Image
I am not a big fan of conflict.  I don't know many people that are. Yet, one thing I learned in my communication classes in college is that in any human relationship or interaction, conflict is inevitable and unavoidable.  In fact, I teach in my marriage counseling that conflict, and how we handle it, can even strengthen our marriages. Conflict is not always a bad thing.  Through conflict, we see new points of view.  We grow as we weather the storm. We even strengthen our resolve. And, at time, God brings conflict into your life in order to move you from where you are to where he wants you to be. That's what happened with the Israelites.  In Exodus 14, we see that God moves to the Jewish people to the once place that means an unavoidable conflict with Egypt.  Surrounded by the Egyptian army, an impassible terrain and the Red Sea, Israel is forced into a confrontation with the Egyptian army.  They have no where to run and ultimately must listen to God as he directs the
Read more