Taking the high road...

Throughout my adult life (I've officially been an adult for 29 years!) I have been given MANY opportunities to "take the high road" in situations. I've been told "take the high road there's no one up there - no traffic". Taking the high road means you've made a choice to be a "full grown adult" about something. It means that your integrity is in the front seat, not the back. It means that you have character running out your nose. Do I sound a little jaded about it? Maybe.

You see, taking the high road always comes at a price - always - and you have to decide if it's a price you are willing to pay. More often then not it is a high one. The question you have to ask yourself is: Are you willing to damage or sacrifice completely a relationship for a moment of being on the low road in a situation?

What's being on the low road? It's letting your emotions get the better of you. It's choosing to turn left when you should turn right (metaphorically speaking). It's bad mouthing people who have hurt you. It's...it's...it's...you get the picture. 

So, yes, taking the high road is no joke and more times than not (if I'm being completely honest) it really sucks, but I have found the toll on the low road too high a price to pay in EVERY SINGLE CIRCUMSTANCE I find myself in where the choice is demanded of me. Think of all the character I've built (only a little sarcasm there). 

So, there has to be a spiritual lesson in here...right?!?! I am, after all, a pastor. So, what is it?

When I chose to follow Christ, I chose to die to self*...me... (John 3:30, "He MUST become greater, and I MUST become less" [emphasis mine]) I chose to say that becoming like Him was more important than getting my own way. Most, if not all, of the time taking the low road means you have to deny your Christ-likeness (Colossians 3:10, "...have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator."), because taking the low road in something means someone is most definitely being injured by your choice. That is simply not an option. I have been bought, by Jesus, at a VERY HIGH price. I cannot forget that. I must honor Him in all things...no matter the cost to me. Some would say this makes me a doormat. Maybe they're right - from a worldly, human perspective - but it is not them that I am out to honor. My honor and devotion goes to Christ. And taking the high road almost always reflects Him to the one being impacted by my choice.

As I said before, taking the high road is no joke.  It has, in almost every instance, cause me some level of pain. (I don't believe sugar-coating things helps people, so I need to give it to you straight.) It hurts to "be the bigger person", but I can tell you that in the long run (sometimes it takes a while to see it) it's for the best - whether it's for you or some one else or both.

Take the high road, dear ones. Take the high road.

* Also see Galatians 2:20-21, Galatians 5:24-25, Ephesians 4:22-24; Romans 6:1-6; Romans 13:14

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