Walking the Bumpy Road

Are you looking for a safe and comfortable road to travel on?

Then, following Jesus might not be the right choice for you.

Jesus never invited anyone to a safe journey. Neither did his Father. The Bible is filled with stories about men and women who knew God and faithfully followed him on a rather bumpy road with many potholes, detours and dangers.

Just think of Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Elijah, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Jesus, Paul… Their lives were characterized by dangers, hardship, risks, threats, agonies and persecution.

Jesus was one of them, and he didn’t promise his followers anything different from what he experienced. Least of all security and comfort.

However, this seems to be what millions of his followers daily pray for and expect for their lives. And churches do their best to make Christianity appear a pleasant experience.

And in case we let Sunday morning performances be the foremost expression of what it means to follow Jesus, this is what we communicate.

Yet, by filtering out the hardship, the pain, the struggle, the risks, the drop-backs, the sweat and the dirt of everyday life, we may end up reducing discipleship to a nice Sunday morning smile. That kind of religion will never stand the test of credibility. Neither the test of authenticity.

On the other hand, if we intentionally face those trials, the hardship and the discomfort, and not only try but actually overcome by strengthening our faith, putting our spiritual weapons into practice and standing side by side as brothers and sisters, trusting the Lord to give us a victory, we make an astonishing discovery.

We then find out that He is with us right there walking alongside with us, leading us through every hardship and towards our destiny. And we discover that this bumpy and tiresome road we are walking on actually is the road of our calling.

The road where His grace becomes most visible.

What a blessing!