Slipping and Sliding

I can only imagine the rolling of eyes and snide whispers coming from my friends and relatives living in the northeastern United States on days when Dallas gets an "arctic blast." We've had a couple this winter and this morning, my family and I are "trapped" (insert laugh here) indoors behind 4" of snow and ice. Meanwhile, people I know in places like New Hampshire are STILL digging out from record FEET of snow that fell a week or two ago and their lives go on with business as usual. Relativity is definitely in play here!

Truth told, the metro Dallas/Fort Worth area (and most of north Texas for that matter) simply isn't equipped for frozen weather. Plows and blowers are as uncommon here as a canoe in a parking lot at AT&T Stadium (a.k.a. "Jerryland" -- where the Cowboys play). Places like Chicago can deal with FEET of snow and scarcely miss a beat, but only a few inches of the white stuff grind my town to a halt. It really is a bit comical when you think about it.

So this morning's coffee time was spent watching local new reports of 18-wheel big rigs trying to navigate the Mix Master and the High Five highway interchanges. It  sobers me that vehicles so impressively built for torque with hundreds of horsepower can be brought to a slipping and sliding mess by less than an inch of ice. Trucks that normally haul tons of goods clear across the country can't move a single inch in this stuff! They stand still until the conditions change (or the de-icing truck comes to the rescue). What is normally easy...is impossible...without help.

Something Jesus taught his followers often hits me like a 1/2" of ice on a Dallas road... Jesus said, "Love your enemies"...and there I go...slipping and sliding...struggling to get traction to keep moving forward in love for all people. "Love your... WHAT?" Seriously? That seems impossible when I hear it because I even have trouble loving the people I know love me! And I'm supposed to also love the people I know don't love me? C'mon...really? But, Jesus didn't leave us without help...traction is available! We just need to discover it.

This Sunday night at The Point...there will be conversation and music about this challenging teaching. Coming together in community... maybe you and I can take a step forward and get some traction in loving the way Jesus loves. See you Sunday evening at 5:00 in downtown Plano.