What a Life! for January 3, 2007-January 10, 2007

Bayou Blue students return to new dig
December 29, 2006
Jan. 27
January 3, 2007
Bayou Blue students return to new dig
December 29, 2006
Jan. 27
January 3, 2007

History tells us about many significant pathfinders. These are men and women who have shown others ways that lead to something new and better. In the 13th century, Marco Polo ventured east from Europe across an unknown and vast land to explore the Far East and its people. He found a new civilization that was different but highly sophisticated. In 1803, Lewis and Clark journeyed by water and land from St. Louis to the present-day Oregon coast, mapping out the region we know as the Louisiana Purchase.


On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong blazed a new path where no human had previously gone when he set foot on the moon. Albert Einstein propelled the world into the present nuclear age with his groundbreaking “Theory of Relativity.”

In sports, people said that running a mile in less than four minutes was humanly impossible. On May 7, 1954, an Oxford medical student, Roger Bannister, paved the way for even more dramatic accomplishments when he crossed the finish line in 3:59:4. One year earlier Sir Edmund Hilary and his guide, Tensing Norgay, were the first persons to reach the summit of Mount Everest, a peak that most thought impossible to climb.


More important than geographic exploration, science, or sports are the pathfinding efforts of people who possess great ideas and those who charismatically encourage others to follow their lead. Mahatma Gandhi in India and Martin Luther King, Jr. in the United States brought about national independence and greater civil rights by using nonviolent disobedience.


However, the most significant pathfinder in world history was Jesus of Nazareth. In word and action he showed humanity how to live righteously and to die courageously for others. He showed us the path to the Father with the promise that all who follow him will find the same joy and prize.

Jesus showed us the way to God by his great teaching. Using images and situations that his listeners could identify with, Jesus provided many lessons in life. He taught the need for humility, the avoidance of greed, the requirement always to be ready for God’s call, the reality of God’s mercy and compassion, among many others. Jesus taught his followers that the law was a means to an end, not the end itself. He taught the importance of love in every aspect of one’s life. Jesus challenged us to love when he stated, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” (John 15:12)

Jesus, the pathfinder, called us to follow his lead and to heed his words. He welcomed all people, but most especially those who were considered outsiders, those whom society had rejected for various reasons. Jesus did not worry about societal norms or prohibitions that might keep others at a distance. He searched for the lost and forsaken of society. He reached out to lepers and others whose physical condition made them unacceptable in society. The Lord welcomed and cared for the foreigner, the stranger, sinners, tax collectors, and others whom society had rejected.

In the end, Jesus’ greatest manifestation of his teaching and love was his sacrifice on the cross. Jesus did not want to die in such a unmerciful, painful, and horrific way. Yet, he was obedient to the Father’s will. Jesus did what was necessary.

Jesus challenges us to follow the path he blazed for us. If we are willing to follow his lead, to suffer for others, to display by word and action Christ’s teaching, then we, too, will rise and return to God from whom we came. Let us fall in line and follow the greatest pathfinder of all time.

He will lead us home. He will bring us to life eternal.