Burning Your Plow

We are warned not to "burn our bridges," as we may want or need to travel back over them again. If we burn our bridges and then discover we've made a mistake, we won't be able to retreat back over them.  It makes perfect sense.  Why cut off your path back to where you started, knowing that things may not work out and that you'll need to return home again?  Why indeed.

How about because you did not want the possibility of retreat?  How about making sure you were going to move forward regardless of what obstacles are in the way?  When you get married, do you think you should put you "little black book" in a place of safe keeping or burn it?  Should you enter marriage with thoughts of what you'll do if it doesn't work out?  Should you ask your parents to keep your bedroom in tact in case you might want to move home?  Or should you encourage them to convert it into a den or sewing room?

Would you ask your boss to keep your current position open just in case you don't do so well in th new position that came with your promotion?  Would you ask your employer to leave your spot at the mill open so you can come back in case you don't keep your grades up in college?  Should you get the number of an adoption agency just in case you don't want to parent the child your bring into the world?  Are their not times when we should burn our bridges?

Elisha was invited to be discipled by Elijah as recorded in 1 Kings 19.  His response was, "let me kiss my father and mother goodbye" and then he went to his home, "took his yoke of oxen and slaughtered them. He burned the plowing equipment to cook the meat and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he set out to follow Elijah and became his servant" (vs. 21).  Elisha was leaving no room for turning back, he burnt his bridges (plow).

Using  the plowing imagery, Jesus said, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God" (Lk 9:62).  In other words, making a decision for God is an all out, no holds barred decision.  Regardless of what our decision brings us to or brings into our lives, we keep our eyes forward, moving toward the prize.  As the apostle Paul put it, "Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus" (Phil 3:13-14).

Instead of hedging your bets and keeping your bridges in tact, God calls us to commit ourselves to faithful following of Christ. When it comes to living a life for God, a life of purpose, a life of love, we need to determine to have no retreat, no reserve and no regrets.  Burn that plow of the past and move forward in faith and commitment.  Jus' Say'n.