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Helga and the Christian Way

The Christian way is different: harder, and easier. Christ says, "Give me all! I don’t want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want you.... Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked—the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you Myself: my own will shall become yours." Both harder and easier than what we are all trying to do.

- C.S Lewis "Mere Christianity"

Have you ever been lost? Maybe in an unfamiliar place and you can't get back on track. We recently got a GPS for our laptop that tells us where we are to turn and how far to go. Now this Lady's voice--isn't that great guys? A lady is telling us which direction to go--told us which way to turn in Louisville, Kentucky and we missed it! Well we weren't prepared. We just plugged the thing in and tried to figure out how to run it while we were driving. We missed the turn. "Off track, Off track, Recalculating!" she blared as I asked my wife, who was manning the laptop, "Which way! Were we supposed to turn right or left?" "I don't know and quit yelling, she said! I can't figure this thing out!" Needless to say after trying to find our way back through the different freeways in Louisville we drove way out of our way and put us two full hours behind our schedule. We also had several arguments......no just loud discussions about where to turn and all the time our lady in the computer was saying very forcefully, "OFF TRACK, OFF TRACK, RECALCULATING!" I found myself arguing with two women about which direction to go and that wasn't even funny. But fastrack forward a week... as we were leaving my daughters house we made a pact. Before we start a trip we will plug all the information into the laptop correctly. We did that and heading across Illinois my wife's son called with an emergency from Southeast Missouri State, where he is a freshman. He needed his mother! Jo, my wife, plugged in the new information and we headed south across Illinois on unfamiliar roads. Helga, as we named her, kept telling us where to turn and we watched our blip on the screen follow the road on the map, bumping across railroad tracks just as we saw them on the map. Taking us across rivers as we watched the blip cross a blue line. Wow, now it seemed so easy! All of a sudden we were told to turn at a dark exit with no markings and head across a state road into the night. It was almost midnight and for the next 45 minutes Helga took us through little towns in almost complete darkness and state roads that were narrower than our driveway. It was a little scary because we were traveling blindly. But Helga faithfully told us to, "turn right on county road 24!" When we received the instruction for our next turn we both turned and looked at each other with our mouths open. "Turn right at next unnamed road" "What?" "Turn right at next unnamed road." That can't be right, can it? But there in the middle of the night with no house for at least 15 miles and no lights that we could see on any horizon, was a road. Just like Helga said! "Shall we turn" Jo asked. "I don't know! Maybe we should go back." "I'm not sure I can find my way back." So we turned and in just a couple of miles the unnamed road became a dirt unnamed road. Then under an overhang of trees Helga left us. Out there in the middle of nowhere not very far from the Mississippi River we lost our guide. For two miles we kept going hoping for something and there she was again. "Turn left on state hwy 48. Approaching in 3 minutes." I never was so glad to hear her voice. We turned and in another mile we were suddenly back on a main hwy within eyesight of a beautiful bridge that took us right into Cape Girardeau, MO where we were headed. C.S. Lewis tells us that the Christian way is like that: Different, Harder, Easier! It certainly is different giving up ourselves to Him. And it is harder than anything we have ever done to give ourselves wholly to Him. But when we do it, life is so much easier. "Love Song," one of my favorite Christian rock groups from my days in college had a song that I loved. It is called

"Front Seat, Back Seat"
"I was runnin' from my Master and I tried out every new thing I could find.
And my life turned into one disaster. Without the Lord I almost lose my
mind.
I was sitting in the front seat trying really hard to be the driver.
Thinking I was making real good time but always winding up the late arriver.
Now I've been trying out the back seat
and I find it is the very place
to be.
Now I'm trying out the back seat and I'm leaving all the driving to
the Chief!"

Sometimes when we are trying too hard to live the Christian life, we can't figure out the "Word of God and we miss our turns and then can't seem to get back to the right place. Just close your eyes and listen again.

With Christ our lives are "different, harder, and when we are wholly His...Easier. -Galatians 5