My first day of being dad went well. I’m tired!

All best plans went to pot due to the weather this morning. We had planned to go out for the day but the rain stopped that, so instead we went to the cinema. Annoyingly when the film finished we came out into brilliant sunshine, but that’s life!

This morning we saw Cars, the latest Pixar and Disney production. It has a well known story theme, selfishness changed by love but this time in the shape of cars, the central character being a ‘rookie’ race car aiming to win the Pitstop cup. (best joke being … ‘He did what in his cup?!’)

There was a key moment in the film where 2 of the cars look out across the landscape and discuss what has happened to Radiator Springs, a town which is dying due to the building of the inter-state, resulting in no through traffic. ‘Once the road followed the contours of this land and so others noticed its beauty; now we are by-passed on the interstate, and just to save 10 minutes they miss out on all this beautiful landscape.

I missed the next few minutes of the film as I thought ‘yeah’ that is what many churches are failing to see by looking for the next quick fix. People jumping on the interstate, the bandwagon maybe, to see things accomplished quickly. All going the same way, all traveling at the same speed, irrespective of the landscape, the climate, the surrounding culture. In fact bypassing and ignoring it all together; maybe even pretending it is not there.

We need to get back to following the contours, to noticing the beauty, to be willing to take the extra time, the more enjoyable journey. If we don’t, we miss out on many beautiful places where God is working and just longing to be joined.