“We proceeded on.”
Before Lewis and Clark launched their expedition, there had
been considerable talk about exploring the Louisiana territory and even a few
attempts, but none successful. Lewis and Clark turned talk and speculation into
a victorious experience. Their expedition replaced the “pipedream” of a
northwest passage with firsthand knowledge of the vast new territory that had
been added to the United States.
For the 4 months (after leaving Fort Mandan, near the
current location of Bismarck, North Dakota) the Corps of Discovery traveled
through country of breathtaking beauty, teeming with game. Lewis wrote, “the
country on both sides of the Missouri continues to be open, level, fertile, and
beautiful as far as the eye can reach.” They encountered herds of buffalo
numbering in the tens of thousands. They had some encounters, and a few close
scrapes with grizzly bears. They managed an exhausting portage around the Great
Falls of the Missouri.
In much of contemporary Christianity the focus is locked in
on people and their needs. Churches are encouraged to be user-friendly; “Tell us
your needs. Bring us your problems. Let us show you how God can bless you.”
Having one’s immediate needs taken care of, however, is not
the primary focus of Christian discipleship. Jesus said, “To walk the road with
me,” Creator Sets Free (Jesus) said to his followers, “you must turn away from
your own path, and always be ready to carry your cross with me to the place of
ultimate sacrifice.” (Matthew 16:24 FNV) when Jesus took up his cross, he
followed his Father’s will, unto death.
Under the leadership of Lewis and Clark, personal needs and
concerns never detracted from the primary focus of the expedition, which was to
complete the journey assigned by President Jefferson. In the summer of 1805,
Clark wrote, “All appear perfectly to have made up their minds to succeed in
the expedition or parish in the attempt. We all believe that we are about to
enter on the most perilous and difficult part of our voyage, yet I see no one
repainting; all appear ready to meet those difficulties which await us with
resolution and admirable fortitude.”
Similarly, you are to discover – and to follow with
determination – the plan that God has set out for your life: to become the
person he has created you to become and to do what he calls you to do personal
needs and problems find their place in relation to this central purpose.
One remarkable phrase, recurring over and over in the Lewis
and Clark journals, tells perhaps as well as anything why the voyage of
discovery succeeded: “We proceeded on.”
The Message of the Good Road: Mark 1:14-15 FNV
Then later, after Gift of Goodwill (John) was arrested,
Creator Sets Free (Jesus) traveled to the territory of the Circle of Nations
(Galilee) to tell the good story.
“The time has now come!” He said to the people. “Creators
could road is right in front of you. It is time to return to the right ways of
thinking and doing! Put your trust in this good story I am bringing to you.”
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