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The Other Jesus, Part 2, Week 2, Day 7

by David Joynt on July 14, 2018

The Other Jesus, Part 2, Week 2, Day 7

LUKE 9:62

Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the Kingdom of God.”

The hardest choices in life are not always between good and evil. Sometimes they are between the good and the best. Once we commit to the Christian path and leave behind some older ways of life, it becomes counter-productive to look back fondly at our previous lives. The only way to plough a straight furrow is to focus on a point ahead of you in a steady way—looking back leads to a zig zag mess in a farmer’s field. Nostalgia is not a Kingdom virtue. We move forward toward new life, the coming Kingdom, and the transformation of all things.

PRAYER

Gracious God, Help me to distinguish between the good and the best and to pursue the latter even at the cost of the former. Grant me such a vision of the life to come, that I am motivated to think and live in a forward fashion, not looking back, but full of anticipation. I ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

 

Tags: commitment, motivation, vision, visión

About the Author
David Joynt

Dave Joynt began his service as a pastor at Valley Presbyterian Church in Paradise Valley, Arizona in September 2014. This meant a move away from the Northeast, where he has a long history, growing up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and then serving congregations in Delaware and New Jersey for a total of 23 years.

Dave was nurtured in a great church in Bethlehem where his parents, Anne and Carey, served as elders. He graduated in classics from Lehigh University where his Father taught, and then from Oxford, where he met his wife Julia. Ordained in 1988, he completed a Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1993.

He and Julia have a son, Tristan, and a daughter, Madeleine.

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