I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I --

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.1

The poem The Road Not Taken, by Robert Frost speaks about a person at a crossroads. This sojourner is deciding between two paths that lay ahead -- which one should he take? One road was well-worn and often traveled, while the other was overgrown and, as he puts it, "wanted wear." It was a choice that for him was significant and seemingly final, for he sighs, "Yet knowing how way leads to way, I doubted if I should ever come back."

It is my desire today to have us also consider a road less traveled. A road that will make all the difference in our lives. A road that speaks not so much of doing something, but of having something. In my Christian faith journey, I was well versed from Sunday school to Bible college to seminary on how to do things for the Lord -- how to serve, how to minister, how to pastor, -- but what I most needed and rarely received was the encouragement to desire a passion for the person of Jesus Christ.

To have passion is to have an intense love for someone or something. Passion covers a broad spectrum of feelings that are appropriate to loving God. (In the Bible for example, one can have a deep longing, a holy zeal, an affection or a hunger for the Lord) David expressed his passion for God when he wrote, "As the deer pants for streams of water so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for the living God." (Psalm 42:1,2)2

It is my belief that there exists in our world a profound hunger for a deep intimacy with God. "The world is perishing," proclaims the renowned preacher A.W. Tozer, "for lack of the knowledge of God and the church is famishing for want of His presence."3 I agree with Wesley Duewel in his book, Ablaze For God, when he writes, "It is not enough to be evangelical in faith and heart; we must be utterly possessed by Christ, utterly impassioned by His love and grace ...." To this passion, I call your attention. I, like Robert Frost, invite you on the road less travelled.

Martha & Mary: Choosing What Is Better

In the tenth chapter of Luke's gospel we have Jesus with His disciples coming to a village where a woman named Martha lived. The text says that Martha opened her home to Jesus. She invited Him and His disciples to a meal and most likely offered them some rooms in which to spend the night.

While in Martha's home, Jesus begins to converse with His disciples and whoever else happened to be present. Luke tells us that Martha had a sister, Mary and that Mary, "sat at the Lord's feet listening to what [Jesus] said."

As the story unfolds, Martha becomes distracted by all the preparation that had to be looked after to ensure her guests would be comfortable and fed. As she is, no doubt, scurrying to get food on the table, she happens to notice that Mary, instead of helping her with supper, is with Jesus, listening to His words.