mileage

There used to be this funny law on the books. It was basically a tax on your time and energy and it was imposed on people caught standing around.

The law was that at any time a Roman soldier could force you to carry his pack anywhere for one mile. If you ran into a soldier, you were just doing what was expected of you by carrying his pack and going two miles out of your way (one in his direction and one just to get back to where you started). It was what I would equate to picking up some one's pencil or holding the door open for someone. It was just a normal kind of thing - certainly not extraordinary.

Here's where following Jesus gets tough. Jesus told his followers to go the extra (or second) miles. He was telling folks not to just go 2 miles out of their way, but to go 4. He said this in a number of ways - He told us to not just love the lovable people....but to even love people who like the D.H....sorry...the enemies. Basically we are called to more. Above and beyond is considered a starting point.

Mercy is the cop giving you a warning when you were driving 75 in a 55. Grace is the cop giving you a warning (for your safety) and then handing you twenty bucks. It doesn't make sense. It's certainly not deserved. That's grace.

We had some friends treat us to a second mile night on Sunday. They called us and told us they were bringing over dinner. They brought over enough food to feed the cast of the Sopranos. It was awesome. And that was just the second mile. Then they handed us a gas card and some cash and told us they were going to hang out with our kids while we went out and watched the Steelers beat up on the Bengals.

We were kicked out of our house....in a good way.

We have some pretty great friends.