Many people I know don’t go out with kids. And the more kids you have, the greater the chances you avoid going out. We have four kids, according the the prevailing theory, we should never go out. In fact, people told us when we had 3 that we would never eat out again. That certainly hasn't proven to be true. We go out quite frequently and we have taught our kids how to act in a crowd. Depending on where we are, the rules are different. In a new place where they don’t know where we are going, they follow us very closely. If there are lots of people around, they walk close, holding a hand. If its a place we know, and there aren't many people, they can run up ahead a bit. The same is true with God. The Bible indicates that there are times when we will walk behind as He leads. Other times we will walk side by side by with Him, and sometimes, He lets us run up ahead. Consider these verses:
JOHN 10:27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.
MARK 16:20 And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs.
ISAIAH 30:21 Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” Whenever you turn to the right hand Or whenever you turn to the left.
I just had the opportunity to spend some time in New Orleans for work. The hotel we were at was right on Rue Bourbon, right in the middle of the French Quarter “action”. New Orleans strikes me as a conflicted city. The question struck me while I was there:
Who is more guilty, the city that caters to a debauchers, or the people who flock to a city to live out their debaucheries?
The answer, to me is that we all individually have to answer to the Creator of history for our own actions. The people who visit the city, and those that run the city. As a tangental note to the discussion, after Katrina, New Orleans did have a clean slate from which to rebuild their image, but they chose to pursue the same course.
What struck me most about the trip is that New Orleans represents the conflict that each of us as artists must face. It is a picture of the war for our souls that rages in our flesh. Of all the places I’ve been in the last couple years, and the list is extensive, no city compares to New Orleans in the abundance of “gifts”.
