A Long Obedience in the Same Direction

            I’ve just started reading Eugene Peterson’s A Long Obedience in the Same Direction and found myself fascinated by his first chapter.  The book is about following Jesus in the day-to-day moments of our lives, and he begins with this observation:

One aspect of the world that I have been able to identify as harmful to Christians is the assumption that anything worthwhile can be acquired at once.  We assume that if something can be done at all, it can be done quickly and efficiently.

Those words stopped me in my tracks.  It was as if I walked past a mirror and noticed that my face was covered in dirt.

            I’m currently away on retreat to do some planning for ministry in the next year, and these words have unsettled my thinking about what we do as a church.  Often I think if I just read the next book or find the next new thing about church, then we’ll be able to figure it all out.  However, I’m starting to think that this assumption about things is the opposite from way God works in our lives.  When we look back at Jesus’ journey with the disciples, they didn’t have it all figured out.  It wasn’t smooth sailing by any stretch of the word.  It was a slow process of 12 people watching what God did, trying to follow that example, and sharing it with others.  It wasn’t an overnight success.  It wasn’t a product you could buy on an infomercial that promised instant results.  It was a long obedience in the same direction.

            That phrase comes from the 19^th century German philosopher and poet Friedrich Nietzsche who wrote:

The essential thing in 'heaven and earth' is that there should be a long obedience in the same direction; there results, and has always resulted in the long run, something which has made life worth living.

            I think that being the church—the community of people dedicated to following Jesus—is about a long obedience in the same direction.  For over half a century, the people of Newport Center United Methodist Church have been practicing a long obedience in the same direction.  This is what God has called us to do.  Sometimes we will hit a home run and other times we will hit a wall.  What matters is that we hit it while moving in the same direction; a direction that pays attention to what God is doing and where God is showing up in our lives.

            It is a privilege to travel this road with you, and I look forward to returning a the end of this month so that we can continue a long obedience in the same direction.