Does life seem repetitive?
Does each day seem the same? Do you get up in the morning, go the same places, do the same tasks, eat the same meals, see the same people? Even if there’s options, are they the same options each time?
One season follows another. Fall, winter, spring, then summer (even as the weather channels try to entertain with some surprises). Football, then basketball, then NASCAR. Christmas shopping, then Super Bowl, and next thing you know the gardening catalogues show up in your inbox.
Expectable expectations aren’t a bad thing. Predictability is stable and comforting. It’s good to know that schools are going to be there, ready and waiting, as we advance from K to 12. The pillars of society stand on dependable people and dependability. There’s safety in numbers, in hitting your marks, in meeting criteria, in checking the boxes.
But it’s the big Choice that breaks the mold, that breaks out of the pack, that breaks in to uncharted territory that fires our imaginations and inspires. Jesus makes a big Choice. He’s a young man up north, serving and speaking in his small town, traveling around familiar territory, inside his comfort zone. Then he feels the call.
When it came close to the time for his Ascension, he gathered up his courage and steeled himself for the journey to Jerusalem.
Luke 9:51 The Message
Jesus becomes aware that he is going Somewhere. And he’s scared. Jesus? Son of Man, son of God? Scared? Who is he to be scared? What’s there to be scared of? Isn’t the end in glory predetermined? Not necessarily. Jesus is scared, because he is on The Way, and that way leads him from the small towns to and through Jerusalem. Big-city, sophisticated, political, dangerous Jerusalem. Jerusalem, that kills the prophets.
He gathers up his courage, and steels himself. Gathers up, pulls himself together, finding the courage to go on a journey. To go toward an end. No more cycle of life. No more changing of the seasons, no more days turning to weeks turning into months as the years pass by. So he steels himself, hardening his resolve to see it through.
What about us? Can we find the courage? Can we steel ourselves? Do we dare to step outside our comfort zone? Do we dare to make the Choice for more, for different, for amazing? Do we dare risk something big for something good?