Road- Runners Or Road Builders
Several years ago, while traveling in New Mexico, I was privileged to see one of those funny little Road-runners I had heard so much about. With all respect to God’s creative touch, I think He might have “missed a beat” when He made this tiny bird. Either that, or else He had a great sense of humor. The T.V. comedies show this bird, running down the road at great speed, saying “beep beep”, “beep beep”!
Sometimes, I begin to feel like the road runner myself. I am moving fast, making much noise, but really not amounting to much, or accomplishing anything of importance.
By contrast, a study of John the Baptist reminds us that he considered himself to be a road-builder. “Prepare ye the way of the Lord” he said, “make his paths straight!” His was the serious task of putting himself out, in order to put someone else in. “I must decrease,” he told his disciples, but “he (meaning Jesus) must increase!” (John 3:30)
Today, I suppose, we would call John the “Advance Man.” Years ago, the traveling circuses had them. Today’s politicians have them. They make the preliminary arrangements. It is like Ed McMann saying: “He-e-e-e-re’s Johnny!”
And today, we must be the ones to say, “here is the One you have been waiting for!” And we must stop “beep-beeping” with the Road-runners of a secular society, and begin the road-building that is costly and important. There are children to be taught; there are patterns of honesty and virtue to be shared; there are lessons to be learned about love and forgiveness; there are the hungry to be fed and the sick to be visited; there are those in jail who need our love and the shut-ins who are lonely.
Sometimes we laughingly talk about the committees that are not committed, the Boards that are bored, the Trustees who cannot be trusted and the stewards who are in a stew. Somehow I don’t like the image of myself as racing around, performing meaningless duties of nonsense. I have been given a more important task, and that is to help build a highway for the King of Kings. To this end, I must be faithful!
Sometimes, I begin to feel like the road runner myself. I am moving fast, making much noise, but really not amounting to much, or accomplishing anything of importance.
By contrast, a study of John the Baptist reminds us that he considered himself to be a road-builder. “Prepare ye the way of the Lord” he said, “make his paths straight!” His was the serious task of putting himself out, in order to put someone else in. “I must decrease,” he told his disciples, but “he (meaning Jesus) must increase!” (John 3:30)
Today, I suppose, we would call John the “Advance Man.” Years ago, the traveling circuses had them. Today’s politicians have them. They make the preliminary arrangements. It is like Ed McMann saying: “He-e-e-e-re’s Johnny!”
And today, we must be the ones to say, “here is the One you have been waiting for!” And we must stop “beep-beeping” with the Road-runners of a secular society, and begin the road-building that is costly and important. There are children to be taught; there are patterns of honesty and virtue to be shared; there are lessons to be learned about love and forgiveness; there are the hungry to be fed and the sick to be visited; there are those in jail who need our love and the shut-ins who are lonely.
Sometimes we laughingly talk about the committees that are not committed, the Boards that are bored, the Trustees who cannot be trusted and the stewards who are in a stew. Somehow I don’t like the image of myself as racing around, performing meaningless duties of nonsense. I have been given a more important task, and that is to help build a highway for the King of Kings. To this end, I must be faithful!
posted by Francis Geo. Guither at 6:36 AM
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