Advent 3 The Longest Trail in the World

[HKHaugan]

“Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning (Lk.12:35)”

If you really think about it the longest trail in the world is between hearts. We can take a plane and in one day be in Asia. We can go by car and reach the West Coast in a comfortable five days. We can ‘Skype’ on the computer and in a matter of seconds see and communicate with people around the globe. Physical distance is no longer a barrier. But there is a distance that seems to be getting longer, more challenging and time consuming, the distance between hearts.

Relational distance is traveled in complete darkness. Attitudes, expectations, disappointments, disillusionments, first impressions, prejudices, worries, weaknesses, are all hills and valleys, walls and barriers that block the longest journey any of us take and that is the journey to the heart of another. It is couched in fear. It is traveled alone.

Add to these the increasing way technology is used to keep the outside world out. People run around with earplugs listening to whatever. Video games consume the present consciousness of millions. We come home, shut the garage door, turn on the TV and are lost in the mindless fare presented. Rather than forwarding our relational experience technology becomes its retardant. Hearts are increasingly further and further apart. It has affected education to the degree that young people have to be taught in sound and scene bites or as they are now called, ‘bytes.’

All of this is part of the darkness that surrounds the relational heart. Technology has intensified the darkness and the relational distance it creates by bringing every war, every conflict, every element of the basest part of human nature right into our living room. No individual can handle the pressure of processing it all. That is why so many resort to escape in any way they can. It is not only our heart but the hearts of those who don’t have a Savior. It is their hearts and ours Jesus came to free. He alone knows the heart. He alone has the keys to the heart and He alone can bring them out of the present darkness. “The people who are now living in darkness will see a great light. They are now living in a very dark land. But a light will shine on them." —(Isaiah 9:1,2)” Fulfilling that prophecy Jesus proclaimed, “I am the light of the world.” He removes the distance by being the light in the darkness.

He is the torch that lights the hearts of those caught in the caves into which they have fled. We are the ones carrying that torch. Jesus said about His disciples and therefore us, “You are the light of the world.” The distance to the heart of another decreases when we share the Light we have been given. Matthew 5:16 (KJV) “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” Amen.