Blogapalooza - Paul Wilkinson

Welcome to Blogapalooza.

I want you to meet some new people. I asked various friends and bloggers to share with you this month on my blog. So, all through the month of June I will feature different voices from around the world. Today I would like to introduce you to...

Paul Wilkinson

My first contact with Paul Wilkinson on the blogosphere was when he found my blog a few years back. He had started his blog a couple months before I did and somehow came across mine. He contacted me and left a comment on an article. After that I checked out his site and have been a DAILY reader since. Read this piece Paul sent and then check out his blog!

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I'm honoured to be asked to guest write again at Just a Thought. I'm going to go out on a limb here and presume that a majority of Rick's readers live in his current home state of British Columbia. No... 'state' isn't a typo, I've been to California enough times to know that west coast living is a state of mind. But I've only been to B.C. on a technicality. Let me explain.

Thanks to my parents' love of road trips -- and one I did with a friend when I was 21 -- I've been to 40 of the 50 U.S. states. My last trip with them was when I was 14 and we went from Ontario to Utah and then north to Banff National Park and Lake Louise in Alberta where, even in the rain, it was still a picture postcard scene. My father was backtiming the days he needed to drive back through the Canadian prairies and return to work on time, so when I pleaded that I wanted to cross B.C. off my "places visited" list, the best he could do with the time remaining was to drive into Jasper National Park. A few feet into the park. For three minutes.

On that basis, I've been to British Columbia. Sort of.

I wonder if people approach the Christian faith that way? At some point in their lives they've crossed a line. Maybe they prayed a prayer. Maybe they were intellectual converts to someone's skillful apologetic. Maybe they truly felt God's presence in a worship service. But that was then. Perhaps they still attend services and even give money or time, but they're kinda 'in on a technicality,' like my visit to Jasper. Just enough to have the bases covered.

A rich man once came to Jesus. To read his spiritual resumé, he was more than just 'in.' He had church cred. But obviously there was some nagging doubt. He went to Jesus to make sure he truly did have all the bases covered. So Jesus throws him the option of doing what Peter and John and the rest of The Twelve did; the option of ditching job and possessions and becoming one of his followers. It's the same "Come follow me" invitation; he's giving the guy the option of becoming a late addition to the team, a 13th disciple. (see Mark 10 and Luke 18.)

But in that moment the man comes face to face with his true priorities. He walks away. A day later, a week later, a month later, if you were to ask him, what would he say is his true spiritual condition?

I think if he was honest he'd say, "Jesus showed me that my heart wasn't truly invested the way it may have appeared. If I'm in, I'm in on a technicality."

Jesus is looking for people who will sign up to be "all in."

Paul & Ruth Wilkinson live in southern Ontario where, on a clear day, you still can't see any mountains. Paul blogs at Thinking out Loud.