Analogies

(now I've lost track of when I started this. it was weeks ago, but how many eludes me. I'm finishing based on today's gospel reading:)

The rule with boats is: on, or off, but don't straddle!  Early in my Christian walk I heard this analogy. Oh, the boat may be right next to the dock right now, but it's going to move away. We must either follow Christ or not, but don't try to follow him partly, with a foot in each kingdom. Either get in the boat or stay on the pier, but if we try to keep one foot each place we're going to get very wet.

A similar idea is used by Mr. Miyagi to explain to Daniel-san how he should commit to the way of life represented by karate, not just dabble in it.  "If do karate just little bit: squish. Like grapefruit."

For several years we've been throwing around the no-limit poker term "going all-in," often without really being fully committed.  Poker players mean this, for the game currently in progress, when they use this term. But there will be another game tomorrow, after all, and Christians sometimes try to borrow the idea of being all-in when they're not, really, totally committed to their walk.

The thing is, trying to be a little bit Christian is a dangerous thing for us. Let me be clear: I'm not talking about condemning people who don't agree with us. But we really cannot live according to God's plan for our lives and according to the world's perspective, and any way that we try to do that is going leave us soaked, squished, or broke. In my finances, my ethics, my relationships, my morality, my responses to my emotions, my control of my life, my spiritual influences, or any other way I can think of, I need to decide how I'm going to live and then commit myself to that path. Am I going to trust in God or not?

In today's gospel reading, Jesus says that if we would follow him, we must take up our cross and follow. The thing is, we try to follow without really taking up our cross and committing ourselves to follow where he leads. When we do, we usually discover later that we have to go back and retrieve it from where we tried to leave it behind or avoid it.

Completely talking to myself here.