The Path of Progress

The scripture tells us that the road that leads to life is narrow, and few find it.  I was thinking about that this morning, because it is a weird thought, especially when you live in the southern U.S.  It seems hard to believe that the road is narrow, because I feel like almost everyone I encounter is a “Christian” or a church go-er.  If the road is narrow, it must have a long line of people on it.  But then you think about what that whole section of scripture says:

“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”

- Matthew 7:13-14

The road IS narrow, but the point of this passage seems to be to “enter through the narrow gate.”  So, it seems like a safe inference that when Jesus says, “only a few find it,” He is referring to the gate…the end goal.  The point of this small passage is that He wants to tell us to enter through the narrow gate.

I bring this up because I think the narrow road is actually pretty crowded from time to time, with many who are on the path of progress to be able to enter in the narrow gate.  Now when it says “narrow gate,” I think that is an analogy for the life that Jesus wants for us to live…it is a destination that could also be defined as the Kingdom of God alive and active in your life.  The narrow gate is this Kingdom alive in us, but few find it.

Why is it that only a few find it?

Like I said, I think many walk on that narrow path from time to time.  I think at times, if you took a birds-eye view, it would look like a street crowded at the beginning of the Peachtree Road race.  But then over time, something happens.  For many, in our journey along this path, we take a mis-step.  We stumble along the way, we step off the path.  It is in this moment that I think we find the climax of our story, the crucial point that makes all the difference.

You see we have a tendency in our human thinking to view our progress in a straight line, demanding perfection from ourselves as we walk this path of progress.  What happens then is when we fall, when we blow it, when we do something that is not a step towards progress, we mentally and emotionally take ourselves out of the race.  We literally stand one step off the path, and in our irrational thinking, we can convince ourselves that we must start over…or that we cannot step back in and continue in our journey.

Check out this excerpt from Nouwen:

“It is important not to dwell on the small moments when you feel pulled away from your progress.  Try to return home, to the solid place within you, immediately.  Otherwise, these moments start connecting with similar moments, and together they become powerful enough to pull you far away from the road.  Try to remain alert to seemingly innocuous distractions.  It is easier to return to the roads when you are on the shoulder than when you are pulled all the way into a nearby swamp.”

Henri Nouwen, From The Inner Voice of Love, pg 39

As we walk along the path, let us set our eyes on the end goal, on the prize that is more of Jesus present and active in our lives…and let us not allow ourselves (our pride, our emotions, our will) to stand in the way of our own progress.

-Cory Lebovitz