Going the Extra Mile
Welcome to Coffee Hour @ Chicklit Power and Trench Classes United! I’m so humbled to have you join me for a cup of encouragement in the journey of life which is full of opportunities to be a good neighbor as He puts people in our lives for a reason, and for a season. Some seasons are longer than others, and some are so quick that one must be prepared and ready to show kindness, listen, sacrifice and humbly! Today being Halloween is a perfect opportunity to practice some of these neighboring principles! Come on; grab whatever you’re having and don’t forget your Red Strand of Faith as my prayer is that what you read today will tie another knot in your faith.
Have you ever not done something and even found good cause to justify not doing so…and then shortly thereafter felt a little nudge tugging on your heart? Oh, I have, and too many times to count. Everywhere we look there are obvious and not-so-obvious needs needing to be met, brokenness needing mending, dysfunction needing education and guidance; in other words, there are plenty of opportunities to be His hands and His feet, to friends, strangers and enemies!
Let’s look at this next piece of this verse 34 in Luke 10 which reveals the Samaritan’s commitment as it relates to this parable. He has already done what most of us would deem plenty – he saw him; his compassion moved him into action of cleaning his wounds; thereafter, he put him up on his own animal, which meant he probably walked to the inn with his eyes on the beaten man while pulling his animal and then he “took care of him.” In verse 35, we read the words: “On the next day when he departed,” which tells us he stayed the night with him!
To many of us, this is a big stretch, a sort of stock in Spandex kind of stretch! ☺ But, really what it is, is the “extra” in “extraordinary”; the extra mile. Did you know that phrase “the extra mile” actually comes from the Bible? See, according to the law, the Roman soldiers could force a Jewish boy or man to carry their packs or burdens for up to one mile. This was a law! And by the way, their mile was just a tad short of the equivalent of our mile. I don’t know about you, but walking a mile requires some energy; I can’t imagine carrying something too!
Galatians 6:2 tells us that bearing one another’s burdens is fulfilling the law of Christ! And yet…we hesitate. Maybe instead of concentrating on excusing why we don’t, let’s look at why we should:
So why would we want to go the extra mile? Well, an easy answer would be “because Jesus says so!” But let’s dig a little deeper. When Jesus spoke the words “And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two” in Matthew 5:41, this was contra-culture; in other words, this statement was offensive to the Jews of Jesus’ day because a Messiah wouldn’t subject himself to such humility for a myriad of reasons…many of those reasons are still with us in our own culture today. Why do you believe Jesus requires a “second mile”? Did you know that there are those in the church that desperately need someone to go the extra mile for them? And we don’t have to walk very far outside the doors of our place of worship to see that same reality.
It’s easy to love those who love us, to like those who like us. This is the equivalent of going that first mile, and if we’re honest with ourselves, many of us do this out of a sense of duty and/or love. But when it comes to a neighbor, a stranger and even an enemy, well, this is the opportunity to go the second mile or the extra mile. It is in this second mile that others are able to see firsthand the level of our commitment and our love for Jesus. Do you believe that if more of us consistently went that second mile, the church would experience a significant shift! Why? The second mile is the trial mile, and we all know that trials grow our faith, and make us more like Jesus!
Can I encourage you this week to be on the lookout for your invitation to go the second mile.
Love,
Evinda
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