Cherry-picking

In the parking lot of a neighboring business there's a machine often referred to as a "cherry-picker" with a worker in it high above the asphalt. It's a hydraulic boom lift operated from a truck stablized on the ground. The man's repairing the light stanchions. Even from this distance I can see that the wind and mechanical jumps and starts cause the bucket to sway a little. I was in a smaller version of one of these once, at that was enough for me. I'm sure these technicians become accustomed to working in the lift, but my hat's off to them.

There's a sense in which those of us who are heavily invested in the spiritual journey are a little like the guy in the cherry picker. The winds of societal change continue to knock us around. Matters we once took for granted in church life can be assumed no longer. Certainly the spiritual landscape in the US itself has changed dramatically in my own lifetime.

But like the worker in the lift, we have a goal, a responsibility -- to represent as faithfully as possible the life-transforming experience of faith in Christ. Fortunately, our conviction is that the controls are in the capable hands of Another.