The Road Least Taken…

My wife recently had old friends over to the house to celebrate the birthday of an old classmate of theirs.  Back in the day, they were a close knit band of rowdy friends hanging out not just in campus but around town as well… They’d go to bars, restaurants, regular hang-outs just to chit-chat the night away while drinking alcohol coupled with a handful (to put it mildly) of cigarettes on the side.

This was their old life.  Mine didn’t differ too much from theirs… sans the smoking and drinking of course.  I never was the drinking type… nor was I hooked on nicotine and tobacco.  But that doesn’t mean my old life was more righteous in any sense… it was just as regretful.

Though I didn’t participate in booze sessions within the confines of smoke filled bars and restaurants with friends, I did engage in conversations with them which promoted distasteful humor and gossip and reveled in others misfortunes just to name a few.  Who hasn’t at one time or another?

But now that my wife and I have entered community and renewed our personal relationship with the Lord, it has totally transformed us and completely overhauled our way of life.  It has changed the way we act, the way we speak, even the way we think.

But just as we get more and more comfortable being around folks who share the same zeal and faith in God, more and more also do we get uncomfortable with individuals who engage in immoral and ungodly activities which we once considered to be “okay”.

I remember when, a few months back, I was invited to go to an event out of community wherein it would expose me to the old crowd that I used to hang out with… I was, at first, eager to touch base with them and catch up on old times… but as soon as I was in the same room with them, everything seemed so different… it felt really weird… in front of me were people whom I used to be very very close with and yet it was as if the way we were conversing was that of one stranger talking to another… shooting the breeze, so to speak, took so much effort on my part… in fact, the usual gossiping  and worldly humor that could be seen (and heard) in every corner of the room made me want to bolt out and go home.

It was apparent that I have significantly detached myself from these worldly and unnecessary practices.

But I realized soon after that it wasn’t enough for me to just be satisfied with being in  and around community and to simply keep off the “outside” world and its false promises which I have so quickly grown out of.  In as much as I’d like to avoid being away from the company of people in community, so too must I be immersed in situations wherein I am put in the midst of individuals who are caught up in worldly matters.

It is our mission to bring the word of God to people who have not fully realized the impact it has in their lives.  The Word is not something to be kept only within yourself… The Word was meant to be shared in order to save everyone from eternal damnation.  We have the Word within us… and by being in the presence of those who have yet to encounter Christ in a more personal manner, it is through us and our witnessing that they may be able to gain knowledge and ultimately salvation.

The salt has to be in the soup, in a manner of speaking.

“You are the salt of the Earth…”, says Matthew 5:13… “salt”, the ingredient which effects preservation and prevents corruption…

Salt are we who have heard the Good News and incorporate it in our daily life.  Salt are those who have learned of Christ and accepted Him as Lord and Savior.

Not the apostles, not ministers only; but all of us who are thus holy, are the salt of the earth - are to season others.

Now, whenever I find myself in situations wherein I am in the company of those who aren’t part of community, I rejoice and give thanks.  I do so knowing for a fact that the Lord has given me another opportunity to spread the Good News… a new opportunity to testify and to witness to others…

…to truly live the life of one who is called a disciple of Christ…

…one who is a “fisher of men”.