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THE PATH OF ETERNITY
by David G. Duggan ©
www.virtueonline.org
September 5, 2024
I grew up in a town which was essentially a movie set. The AcademyAward winning film "Ordinary People" was filmed there 45 years ago, and it has provided backdrop scenes for movies as diverse as "A Wedding," "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" and "Damien--Omen II." As a testament to its place in the national psyche, this town drew an honorable mention in the seminal novel of the gilded age, "The Great Gatsby."
Unsurprisingly, it was where Robin Williams and Vince Vaughn first performed. Where we grow up may bear no correlation to where we end up: the annals of those who overcome their upbringing or squander the benefits of their heritage are too many to say that birth status is destiny.
Millennia ago, we may have been bound to the land where we were born, but if anything can be proved from the Bible, it is that people of faith are required to obey the call to leave their sheltered lives so that God's purpose can be worked out. Jesus, who never traveled more than 200 miles from the place of His birth, was nevertheless critical of those who relied on their birthrights to justify their actions.
"And do not think you can say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham." (Matt. 3:9-NIV). Perhaps ironically, Jesus told those who wanted to stone Him for claiming that His authority exceeded that of Abraham: "before Abraham was I am." (John 8: 49-58-NIV).
Stones are of course elements of construction but also instruments of death. Each requires human action: stones don't move themselves. Our place of origin is relevant only to how we use its benefits to usher in God's kingdom. We can stay in one place if that is where God has called us to be. Or we can rely on God to show us the farther path toward eternal life.
David Duggan is an attorney who resides in Chicago. He writes occasional pieces for Virtueonline.
