“You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way. But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it.”

Carpenters would tell you that when you try and work with wood that you are on your way to trouble if you try and go against the grain of the wood.  We’ve adopted that statement when we describe those things that we try and change, or do differently that have an already built in constant or unchangeable factor, like the grain of wood.  And sometimes there are things we encounter that appear changeable but might be already intractable, but we haven’t figured it out yet so we have to adapt and think of new ways.  Here is one that caught my eye this week. Texting and engaging on a mobile phone is not going away.  We see people doing it all the time, everywhere, even when it is dangerous (and wrong) like in a car while driving.  And even today, texting and walking has become dangerous as people will wander into an intersection.  Can that be changed?  Sure, we can establish new laws and put a policeman on every corner, but that isn’t going to happen.  It’s a problem though and how will we address it?  Well, maybe it is better in some cases to recognize the grain, and make a new kind of cut, like what a city is doing here.  There may be many things that we’d like to change, but we might be better off figuring out how to find where the grain is going before we try too hard.

Jesus was a carpenter by trade training. He would have understood the concept of going with and against the grain. That is possibly why His parables of teaching gave many examples of those who had to make hard choices to not be like the others, but at the same time taught us that we are to spread his Good News through all of our world’s work and life.  What he also taught us is that He will help us figure this all out if we will only seek and rely upon Him. So, like the carpenter who has to look closely at the wood to see the grain, we must look closely at Him to know which direction to go.

Reference:  Matthew 7: 13-14 (New Living Translation)