Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Staying On the Bus
If you go to the Greyhound station and buy a ticket for Nashville, you can pretty much count on making it to Nashville unless there's a flood, or snow or some other problem. If you stay on the bus you'll get there, eventually.
The bus whose headsign reads "Perfection" is no different. I got on that bus in 1971, but got off after a few years. Many years after that, Jesus saw this pathetic wreck beside the road, stopped the bus, shot the brakes, got out from behind the wheel and picked me up. Very gently he picked me up and put me in a seat on His bus.
Did I look at the headsign that time? No. I knew I'd been headed over a cliff. Jesus saw more in me than I ever saw in myself.
It's a big bus. There are lots of people on it. Those near the front have equipped their seats with all kinds of controls: steering wheels, brakes, gearshifts. They pass around books telling each other how to drive. They espouse schemes for repainting the bus to make it more attractive and jazzing up the message. The people in the back just sort of look dazed. Some of them are crying because they thought they were lost but the bus came for them. A few have strapped themselves in because they know they have a tendency to wander away.
This one's for Lu.
The bus whose headsign reads "Perfection" is no different. I got on that bus in 1971, but got off after a few years. Many years after that, Jesus saw this pathetic wreck beside the road, stopped the bus, shot the brakes, got out from behind the wheel and picked me up. Very gently he picked me up and put me in a seat on His bus.
Did I look at the headsign that time? No. I knew I'd been headed over a cliff. Jesus saw more in me than I ever saw in myself.
It's a big bus. There are lots of people on it. Those near the front have equipped their seats with all kinds of controls: steering wheels, brakes, gearshifts. They pass around books telling each other how to drive. They espouse schemes for repainting the bus to make it more attractive and jazzing up the message. The people in the back just sort of look dazed. Some of them are crying because they thought they were lost but the bus came for them. A few have strapped themselves in because they know they have a tendency to wander away.
This one's for Lu.
# posted by Larry @ 04:30 
Comments:
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"Those near the front have equipped their seats with all kinds of controls: steering wheels, brakes, gearshifts...."
Are you sure they are the ones in the front? Seems to me -- in my picture of this bus -- that those are the ones toward the back, or at least in the middle. They're the people who, while still on the bus, aren't really in contact with Jesus that much; who are still trying to drive their own particular buses without realizing they don't have control, never did.
I think you and I are the ones in the front -- where we can be in constant contact with the Driver, with Jesus. We realize that no matter how much we WANT to be in control, no matter how much we try to be, we aren't. Contol is an illusion. And, yeah, I believe the illusion more than I prefer to admit, but that doesn't change the fact that it's illusion.
And I'm not so sure the sign on the front reads "Perfection" -- unless we're using the Biblical definition (ie, complete-ness) and not the world's definition (without flaw or brokenness). At least I don't want to be on a bus heading for the latter -- the former, yes, but not the world's view of perfection. Perhaps it reads "Redemption".....?
Just thoughts from my fuzzy brain...
Miss you, bro.
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Are you sure they are the ones in the front? Seems to me -- in my picture of this bus -- that those are the ones toward the back, or at least in the middle. They're the people who, while still on the bus, aren't really in contact with Jesus that much; who are still trying to drive their own particular buses without realizing they don't have control, never did.
I think you and I are the ones in the front -- where we can be in constant contact with the Driver, with Jesus. We realize that no matter how much we WANT to be in control, no matter how much we try to be, we aren't. Contol is an illusion. And, yeah, I believe the illusion more than I prefer to admit, but that doesn't change the fact that it's illusion.
And I'm not so sure the sign on the front reads "Perfection" -- unless we're using the Biblical definition (ie, complete-ness) and not the world's definition (without flaw or brokenness). At least I don't want to be on a bus heading for the latter -- the former, yes, but not the world's view of perfection. Perhaps it reads "Redemption".....?
Just thoughts from my fuzzy brain...
Miss you, bro.
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