In our personal lives and the life of the church we come to many crossroads. At each crossroad or intersection a decision must be made. Namely, “Which direction will we take?” Each of the intersecting highways leads not only in a different direction, each leads us distinctly away from the intersection, the crossroad, our point of decision. For some this means a move away from the familiar and into unknown territory.
Unknown territory for most people brings caution. For some, unknown or unfamiliar territory is a forbidden chasm – a deep, dark hole that should not be explored. To leave the comfortable and the familiar would be like leaving a warm bed on a cold morning for a barefoot walk in the snow.
However, the unknown and unfamiliar can yield some of life’s greatest treasures. Had Columbus not wanted to satisfy his curiosities, when would the “new world” have been discovered? He came to a crossroad in his life; to sail off to the west or to live the rest of his life forever wondering. When Columbus came to his crossroad he chose to go west.
If a group of believers not had opposition with the Church of England would they have come to the crossroads of setting out to find a place to practice freedom of religion? We all come to crossroads in our lives. At each crossroad we find avenues that lead us away from our point of decision, our crossroad. At each crossroad we must make a choice. The decision we make at this crossroad will influence every crossroad we encounter hereafter.
For the visual example of this scenario let’s imagine that we are traveling north on the highway of life. We are driving north on our journey as we approach a crossroad. A crossroad is where two or more roadways intersect.
As we approach each crossroad in life the decision to be made takes into consideration several variables. The first of these variables is directional. Over the next few entries we will look at where each of these directional variables may take us. Each one will have its challenges and victories. Be certain to read each entry in this series of blog posts.