As I look back on my life’s journey, I can see where I’ve made all sorts of detours in a trip toward some destination…a destination about which there has been very little agreement. Today, as I check my internal compass, I recognize the path I’m now on as one that bears a striking resemblance to a path I abandoned as a young man in my early twenties. Like most detours, there is movement toward the destination but the route is not the most direct and the scenes along the way are not always what one had hoped or planned for. It’s been an interesting journey and along the way I’ve learned quite a few things – some the hard and painful way.
For awhile I followed a path that was strictly prescribed for me. I was shown and taught to follow a road that had a “heaven” as its final destination. Everything I needed to know: how I should behave, what I should do, not do or avoid - the whole works - was all laid out for me to follow. Well I followed it for a while – initially with an enthusiasm that gradually diminished as I approached my twenties. Slowly I came to realize that (perhaps because of my perception) it was going to be a long, boring, miserable journey; and I wasn’t at all sure I wanted to go to a place that sounded like just more of the same.
Exit that road and on to another - but what was at the end of this new road I’d gotten on? I figured it was where the journey ultimately ends and you die - fade to black – trips over – no refunds. After travelling that route for a while, I found it also had its share of boredom and misery plus the ultimate question that needs answering, “What’s the point?” Now the journey could begin in earnest...because finding answers to that question became the “point.” Exploration and discovery became prime motivators on a journey that was becoming interesting again.
At that point, as I followed the path I was on, the detour headed back toward the cross and my becoming Christian once again. I’ve already written more about this elsewhere and won’t repeat it all here but suffice it to say I wasn’t moved by some strong emotional experience or miraculous event, rather I was gradually moved by some simple questions that were born within me, and the answers I found. As those answers began to accumulate, the full realization of what I was starting to get a glimpse of was (and remains) awesome.
And so now, for me at least, the question becomes why take the detour in the first place – and IF I would have known what I know now, would I have taken it or would I have tried a more direct route? If I’m honest, I think I’d have to say there are only a few things that I would change. I don’t believe I could have arrived at the point I’m at today without the detour and the lessons I’ve learned along that path. I also believe those lessons have a role to play in my life i.e. lessons and tests that are yet to come.
Like everyone else, my choices in life are based on thoughts and feelings. These two factors apply not only to what I think and feel about current circumstances but also what can I do about changing those circumstances if I wish to think and feel differently. In my early twenties I realized I was dissatisfied and didn’t like where I was - I wanted to experience some pleasure, excitement and enjoyment that had been incompatible with, and forbidden by, a particular religious point-of-view and upbringing. If I continued to follow that same path, other than get older, nothing else was likely to change.
Now before I go any further, I want to be very clear: I DO NOT view all Christians as being the same therefore I DO NOT want to paint them all with the same brush. However, that being said, impressions that one forms about any group are generally based on those individuals or representatives you meet from within that group. I know there are many, many happy Christians and have met huge numbers of them, but (despite protestations to the contrary) I’ve also witnessed an almost joyless reality that has become the identity of far too many Christians that I’ve known or met over the years. With a sombre and subdued outlook on all things they regard as “worldly,” these folks seem to make it a point to focus on all the ‘sinful’ things those around them (especially the young people) are engaged in. After a relatively benign and happy early childhood, many of the young people are sometimes quickly thrust into a world full of “shall not’s” and “do not’s.”
