Spring is here. The signs are everywhere but one I've been enjoying lately is the mass wandering about of the caterpillar population. On my daily walks I see them all over. At first they were just gathered in the brush along the edge of the sidewalk but as the days have gone on I've noticed the steady stream of them crossing the sidewalk and moving toward the street.
I'm intrigued by this mysterious internal voice that calls them east.
Up and over the curb their fuzzy bodies motor along. Out and into the street they go. Determined. Undeterred. Cars speed by and the whirlwind rolls them over and over like little tumbleweeds. And...if they survive, they right themselves and press on.
They are guided by a driving, innate force. It's their Purpose... Their 'Why'... Their goal.
As people, sometimes I think we can lose our way and our Why. We get distracted from our purpose or maybe we never even really know we have one. If we don't know our purpose or have lost our focus it makes it really hard to keep pressing on and moving forward.
With Jesus, the goal was always love. If we are to be like Jesus it needs to be our goal too. It should govern how we live... how we treat others. His was a humble, self sacrificing, put others first Love. Jesus basically summed it up in this one sentence, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength and you shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Mark 12:30-31) That's it. Purpose.
As human beings we need to focus in on this purpose, this goal. All we need to do is look around us to see the carnage of culture lived without it. Love has to become the guiding, driving, undeterred force that calls us forward, out into "traffic" where we might get blown around a bit. We need to love with determination and perseverance. ...even people who may look different. ...people who may be difficult. ...people who inconvenience us ...even people who think differently.
And when we do, eventually, like the caterpillar who presses on and perseveres there is this transformation that occurs ...something beautiful happens. It happens individually and en masse.
We Must Press On Toward Love.
Determined. Undeterred.
