The Long and Winding Road

New Year’s Eve was kind of quiet - stayed home with my wife Julie, our daughter Sarah and her friend Bryan. We watched a quirky comedy entitled, “The Maiden Heist.” That ended about 11:30 and with just a little time before the new year began, I popped another DVD into the player: Paul McCartney, “Good Evening New York City” a concert video filmed in July 2009. It is a great concert video – tremendous energy and fantastic music. One highlight would be “Here Today,” a song in honor of John Lennon.
Right about midnight, Paul began playing “The Long and Winding Road.” Not a bad song to end one year and begin a new one – one part of the long and winding road of life turning into another.
And if we answer the call to discipleship, where will it lead us? What decisions and partings will it command? To answer this question we shall have to go to him, for only he knows the answer. Only Jesus Christ, who bids us follow him, knows the journey’s end. But we do know that it will be a road of boundless mercy. Discipleship means joy.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, 41
Joy. The next day I finished watching the rest of the McCartney concert as I walked on our treadmill (too cold to walk outside, but the consolation is that I watch some great videos). Joy filled Citi Field as McCartney played, and he exuded joy in playing. But why shouldn’t he? He was a part of one of the most phenomenal rock bands ever and is quite wealthy as a result. He gets to play music for a living. Of course he can exude joy. Then I also think about other aspects of his life – two close friends dead, one by murder; a wife who died of cancer. The road for Paul McCartney has been long and winding at times. Still there is joy.
The road of life, even for disciples, can be long and winding, sometimes even more long and winding because we are disciples - - - for we are called to care even when caring is difficult, we are invited to be more human and more whole, and that isn’t always easy. Still, our long and winding road can be filled with joy. Not a bad hope for the new year.
The concert ended with “The End”: And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make. Not a bad goal for the new year.

With Faith and With Feathers,

David