I have always been an athlete. Even now, my martial arts still give me that chance to be athletic. When I was a kid, my brother was my example, my hero. He was 8 years older, so he had me out playing baseball when I was 3. No really, we have pictures of this. Now, that doesn’t mean that my brother was always kind and helpful. No, when he had grown tired of me during our “street football” days, he would say go long, I would run out for the pass…….and he went in the house!
Now that is cold-blooded isn’t it? I should have known better, it wasn’t the first time, but I trusted him. And, to be fair, I was an 8 years younger pest a good deal of the time. All in all, I knew and know he loved me deeply and I have missed him daily for 15 years. That is not the point, missing my brother. The real point is, who do we trust enough to go long for?
God calls us to “go long” every day. The example of doing so is Jesus. And like I did for my brother, Jesus went long out of love and trust. Love for us and trust in his Father. The Abbey I am a part of even uses a derivative of this when they describe the monastery as a place to “go deep”. The monks there go deep every day.
So, the question before us is who do we trust enough to go deep or go long for? We are called to “go long” for the least of His children. When was the last time you went long? Did you do it for the hungry, the naked, the widow, the prisoner, the thirsty? The path Christ showed us in those years on earth is a narrow one because it is not easy to go long for those we do not think deserve it or have not earned it.
Let’s be who we are called to be. Let’s go long for every child of God, Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, poor, hurting, hungry, every single one, let’s go long. I promise God will not walk off and go
TMM