Missing the Main Event in Mission
The Tour de France is hot on the sports news. The TV coverage is beautiful. The commentators describe each day’s course. The cyclists will pedal through the Alps, the Pyrenees, and any number of quaint French villages and a gorgeous countryside. The video shows beautiful flowers cascading over rock ledges, rolling hills and towering mountains. Thousands will line the course attempting to get as close to the racers as allowed, eager to be part of the action.
But how much will the cyclists see? Intent on only one thing—speed, they ride with their tinted goggles pointed toward the macadam right in front of their front tires. If they raise their heads, all but a couple of leaders will see a sea of colorful jerseys and tight black leggings. All else is blocked. Each cyclist makes every attempt to keep anything or anyone from impeding progress toward a pre-assigned finish line.
And the people who line the course . . . will their presence make a difference? Will any action they might take make a difference in the outcome?
When the race is over, the winner will be praised. Most of the riders will be able to say no more than they were there.
Where were they? Following the guy in front of them, oblivious of everything around them.
How much time do we spend in church racing towards a finish line defined by someone else, following a leader with narrow focus, who allows for little or no help from the sidelines, hoping to win all the credit, while missing the main event—the beauty of God’s creation and the people and places God calls us to serve?