Decision Time

In South America, there is a primitive bridge made up of interlocking vines which support a precariously swinging wooden walkway — hundreds of feet above a river. Author Philip Yancey once stood at the edge of the great gulf trying to decide whether to cross over. “I knew the bridge had supported hundreds of people over many years,” he said, “and even as I stood there, I could see people confidently crossing over.” He reasoned, “The engineer in me wanted to weigh all the factors; measure the stress tolerance of the vines; test the wood for termites; survey all the bridges in the area for one that might have been stronger. I could have spent a lifetime determining whether the bridge was trustworthy. But eventually, if I really wanted to cross, I had to take a step. And when I finally put my weight on the bridge and walked across, even though my heart was pounding and my knees were shaking, I was making a statement — declaring my position.” The author continued, “In the Christian world, I sometimes must live like this, making choices which contain inherent uncertainty. If I wait for all the evidence to be in, for everything to be settled, I’ll never move. Often, I have had to act on the basis of the bones of the Christian faith before those bones were fully formed in me and before I understood the reason for their existence. Bone is hard, but it is alive. If the bones of faith do not continue to grow, they will soon become dead skeletons.” In the matter of Christian values, our bones of our faith, a great many of us seem powerless to make a statement — declaring our decision to narrow the gulf between our way of living and the way of life God has revealed in and through our Lord Jesus Christ.

In Luke 16, Jesus tells a parable about the gulf that separated a very wealthy man and a poor beggar named Lazarus. Jesus told this story mainly for the benefit of the Pharisees — members of the Religious Establishment whom he often criticized for their unwillingness to make a conscious decision to change their way of living. Jesus was warning the Pharisees that their attitude made it impossible for anyone to get through to them and convince them of the need to reorder their priorities and lifestyle. He wanted them to change their value system, which placed strict observance of the letter of the law above the spirit of compassion. He wanted them to reverse their self-righteous, holierthan-thou, know-it-all attitude. But he knew that unless they made a conscious decision to open their hearts to receive the truth, no one would get through to them — even “if someone should rise from the dead.” Our future is open. And we need to repent. Our future depends upon a willingness to change.