John Mackay, former president of Princeton Seminary, once used a most illuminating image. He wrote of balconies and roads and how they could be seen as metaphors for following Christ.

Balconies, he explained, were for sitting and quietly observing. People who spend time on balconies have a lovely view of what’s going on, but no real sense of what it is like.

Roads, on the other hand, are where the action is. Roads are for adventurers who are willing to risk much. Roads are for those who are committed not just with their minds but with their entire lives.

Christians can never sit on balconies. Christians are always out on the road.

"Follow me," Jesus said because he knew that it was in the following that God’s plan of salvation was revealed. It was in the loving, the serving, the sacrificing for others that the abundant life was discovered.

It is only when we walk the road that we realize the joy that comes from the Christian life. It is only when we accept the gift that we unwrap the power of God to work in our lives.