In 520 BC Haggai gave a prophetic call to the then-recently freed people of Judah to "consider their ways". It was one thing to long for liberty and dream of a New Jerusalem while living in Babylon. But it was another thing for folks to keep their hearts and minds focused on the call of God once they'd been rescued and granted a new beginning. I can relate.

The challenge that Haggai repeats several times in his little 38-verse book ... "consider your ways" ... means "to put your heart down to our road." In other words "consider your ways" means to "look deep down inside and see if our heart (that is, the things that are to be at the center of our lives as followers of Jesus Christ), are actually being lived out on the roads we're traveling, and in the decisions we're making about how to steward our gifts, our time, our talents, our resources, and our passions into the things of the Kingdom of God.

Sometimes "who we long to be," and "who we're called to be", can be quite different from "who we really are." But oh, how God desires to bring congruity between these two often divergent realities. And yet, for this gap to be bridged, and for this dis-harmony of "intent and reality" to come into unison with one another, sacrifice and change are required. And this is the stuff that lies at the very heart of what it means to get onto and stay on the road to becoming disciples of Jesus Christ, and Christians who, like it's said of David in ACTS 13:36, "served the purposes of God in his generation."

Will you join me in these sacred tasks of remembering, returning and remaining in the land God has called us into ... choosing to be sojourners who are more comfortable wearing the garments of the Kingdom of God than the sack-cloths of this world? It's a yoke worth taking on, a challenge worth accepting, a way of life worth embracing. Godspeed.

read.think.pray.live.

Gregg