Have you ever had one of those moments when you woke up with an odd thought or picture streaming through your head? That was my morning. I'm in Chennai, India all week interacting with and teaching Bible College students, pastors and professors. Yesterday I had a lively conversation with one of the professors and we were talking about the church's engagement with the world. When I awoke this morning an image came to mind. What would happen if the church viewed itself as an on-ramp to a highway? The highway is filled with people in speeding cars weaving between monotonously straight lines. Some chasing illusive dreams, some hopelessly bored in dead end jobs, some fearing layoff, some simply hoping to survive.
On Monday mornings what if the people who gathered in churches the day before scattered the other six days of the week? What if every day Christ-followers loaded their luggage racks with parcels of love, truth, beauty and goodness and became a human carrier system to human beings and human doings? What if we chose to view our office pools, factory floors, executive suites, lunchrooms and classrooms as places in desperate need of daily deliveries of those same qualities? What if the Church saw itself as the real, "United Parcel Service" taking to on-ramps with redemptive parcels of hope?
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