Weekly Words

Turn the Corner

The other day while looking for a parking spot I found myself in traffic. I had chosen to eat lunch in a popular shopping plaza at peak lunch hours and there were cars going around and around. So, like most of the rest of the cars I found myself driving in circles anxiously awaiting for someone who had finished dining or completed their shopping. Out of the corner of my eye I saw two men walking down a turn that I had previously assumed led nowhere because I saw no cars turning in that direction. However, I was too fed up with the futility of circling around the congested parking lot to not at least give it a try. I came around, took the turn that I had passed numerous times before, and to my amazement there were several parking spaces empty just steps away from the traffic jam I was in moments ago. It dawned on me that I was going in circles because that was what all the cars around me were doing. I had been caught up, wrapped up, and jammed up in futility because I would not try turning around a new corner that no one else would try.

Crowds are convenient. They allow us the luxury of living without creativity, courage, and calling. The temptation of a crowd is the temptation to live with out using your own sense of direction. I would not get out of the traffic jam because I simply assumed that since everyone else was there, that was the best path to find adequate parking. Moreover, the temptation of a crowd is the temptation to live without using your own strength. Years ago an experiment was done to see if, given the choice of an open door or a closed door that needed to be opened, people would crowd in front of the open door instead of walking through the door that simply needed to be pushed open. Sure enough a crowd formed around the open door, and most people chose to wait in the traffic of the crowd than to simply go open the other door and go about their business. The temptation of the crowd is why so often in life we find ourselves circling around in traffic going the same place and seeing the same things while looking for some place that will provide us progress. We find ourselves in motion but going nowhere, making efforts with no efficacy, and trying to go to a place where there is no space. We find ourselves stuck in the crowd.

I’ve said all that to say this. If you are stuck in life following some crowd that can not get you where you need to go, then let me convince you today to turn the corner. God has given you creativity, courage, and a calling that can take you so much further and bless you so much more than by sitting in a congested parking lot. God has given you a sense of direction to explore further than the car in front of you, and God has given you the strength to open your own door. Your dreams and your destiny are awaiting you, if you would just turn the corner.

Humbly in Christ’s Love,
Pastor B.A. Jackson