"Short Cuts"

 

“Short Cuts”

 

In baseball lore there’s a story of a group of Major League wannabes who showed up for an open tryout session at a team’s spring training site. One hopeful was told by a coach to swing a bat then run as fast as he could to second base which he did—except he ran straight across the pitchers’ mound and slid into the base! The astounded instructor asked what he was doing and the runner replied, “That’s the fastest way I know of to get from home to second.” Presumably this player was quickly shown the exit from the Grapefruit League camp as there’s no short cut to reach second base—first must be touched first!

As we drive through the countryside or around cities we often look for ways to shorten our trip and save time. After consulting our trusty AAA map (remember those?) or punching our destination into our GPS we think we’ve found a short cut so off we go. But watch out—what we believe to be a quicker way is sometimes a cow path or puts us in stop-and-go traffic. I say this with authority as it came back to bite me on several occasions when I was headed to a first-time home visit with a hospice patient. I became a quick learner in such cases.

It just struck me that Jesus used a short cut which led to a significant encounter. When the Jewish people of His day traveled between Judea and Galilee they would usually go the long way through Perea, east of the Jordan River, to dodge the Samaritans whom they despised. But when Jesus made this journey early in His ministry He took the short cut because “…he had to go through Samaria.” (John 4:4, emphasis added). Why? Someone there needed Him to change her life as well as her entire village (read the whole chapter to see how this happened). Do we (I) sometimes avoid a particular route lest we (I) run into someone we’d (I’d) rather not? How many opportunities have we (I) missed by doing so?

In our instant gratification society we also might look for short cuts to grow in our faith. Our Lord’s friend and apostle challenges us to “…grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” (2 Peter 3:18) and Paul asserts that “…(Jesus) who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1:6, emphasis added). So reaching maturity in our relationship with Christ takes time, actually a lifetime. So let’s stop looking for the easy way and “Throw (ourselves) into (our) tasks so everyone will see (our) progress.” (1 Timothy 4:15, NLT).

 

Grace and Blessings!

Jim McMillan