The city is doomed!

Get out while you can!

Find Jesus!

With these words of the prophet echoing in his brain, Pilgrim went out wandering on the path of life…searching for Jesus.

The dour Village of Tradition was the first stop on his quest. Yet, it didn’t take Pilgrim very long to realize that all the rules he had to follow to be accepted in the village, all the cliques he had to join to be loved had little to do with Jesus. The prophet had said that Jesus was a friend of sinners…while the residents of the village of tradition avoided sinners at all cost.

The prophet had said that Jesus spoke of loving their enemies while the residents of the village devoted their lives to the pursuit of political power in order to force their their enemies to follow their own agenda…indeed, the residents of the village prided themselves on being righteous, but it what clear to Pilgrim that the residents were simply self-righteous pharisees, much like the residents of the city of destruction he had just left.

Somehow, despite the many unspoken and unwritten laws against speaking the truth in this village, Pilgrim summoned up the courage to point this out at one of the many meetings that were held in the town square. As he spoke, the gathering soon dissolved into a crescendo of bellowing and outrage. Pilgrim soon found himself running for his life, chased by a mob of pale zombies, all baying for his blood.

Somehow, he managed to escape their clutches…but he knew that the pharisees would continue to hunt him until he received the punishment they thought he deserved. His time was running short…he had to find Jesus.

Pilgrim picked up his pace as he traveled the trail of life.

The next stop on his quest was Vanity Fair…a riotous carnival on the open plains just outside of the city where he had come from. Towering over the revelry was a giant neon sign that flashed the word, “Jesus,” in bright red for the world to see. After the grim colors of the village of tradition, the sight was a refreshing one. Perhaps here he would at last find Jesus!

As Pilgrim eagerly plunged into the swirling mass of happy revelers, he could see a long line of colorful, brightly lit booths. There in the booths were the well dressed carnival vendors, all preaching loudly of wealth, health and happiness…all available for a small monthly donation. For a moment Pilgrim was tempted but then he remembered the whispered words of his teacher, the truths that Jesus was homeless, a man without a place to lay his head. With that in mind it seemed unlikely that Jesus could be found here in the chaos of carnival games. Pilgrim turned his back on the loud shouts of the carnival barkers and continued in his search. For a few joyous hours he was caught up in the thrill rides of Vanity Fair. The thrill riders were a fun bunch to hang around with and many good times of fellowship were shared. Perhaps these people had the answers…perhaps they knew where Jesus could be found. In a quiet moment between thrill rides, Pilgrim summoned up the confidence to raise some of the deeper questions of life. The questions that he had been wrestling with ever since he left behind the city of his birth.

Yet, these questions set off the same reaction one might expect if someone had walked naked into a Church.

After a moment of disturbed chatter, the thrill riders deserted Pilgrim with the dour comment, “we don’t like to talk about those kinds of things around here.”

Pilgrim was left as a lonely black silhouette, lit up in the colorful strobe lights of the carnival. Again he remembered the words of his teacher, the shabbily dressed prophet who had encouraged him to leave the city of destruction in his search for truth.

Jesus had said, the truth will set you free…so, people who refused to speak of the truth, just because it was difficult, could not be serious students of Jesus. Pilgrim sighed as he realized how much time he had wasted here in this fun but ultimately shallow and empty carnival.

When it got right down to it, the Village of Tradition and the Vanity Fair had much in common. They both were more concerned about themselves and their own agendas than about actually finding Jesus.

Pilgrim searched the empty, nuclear blasted, horizon. As he took in the landscape of scarred, twisted trees he wondered where he could travel next in his quest for truth.

Just outside the town limits of Vanity Fair the angry mob of tradition still waited for him, hungry for his blood. Cackling, licking their lips with anticipation over the judgement he would soon receive. Within the carnival he was simply ignored and left to his own devices…an uncomfortable intrusion into the lives of citizens whose priority was their own comfort. He couldn’t stay here.

Where to go?

What to do?

He had to do something!

Rockets were falling from the clouded sky like a rain of meteors, the destruction prophesied by the prophet was at hand. This gave Pilgrim an urgency he had never known before as he again set out on the trail of life…searching for truth, running to avoid the zombie mobs of tradition that waited for him at every turn.

***

Years later, after he had finally found rest at the feet of Jesus, Pilgrim reflected on the lessons he had learned in the terrible days he wandered the world of the walking dead. How true success isn’t found in gathering up things doomed to destruction…but in investing in the human beings of eternal value. How a divine victory isn’t found through self-righteous boasting but in the humble voice of surrender. How Jesus isn’t found sitting in the grand halls of human grandeur…but by all those wretched Pilgrims who whisper for mercy when they stumble…when they falter…

***

Motivational Meditation of the Month.

Karma says we’ll all get exactly what we deserve for everything we do…which is actually pretty terrifying when you think about it. However, what if divine grace is available for those rich in wealth but poor in character, all the wretched souls that grasp for things instead of for love, for all the ugliness in a fallen race?

Wouldn’t embracing a grace like this give us true peace, freedom from the fear of karma?

What if the great mystery isn’t, why does God allow evil?

But why does God still allow so much beauty and goodness to enter a world where humans constantly create evil?

Wouldn’t a grace like this be the most amazing mystery of all?