The Shortest Distance

The distance from New York to Paris is 3,627 miles, depending on which airport in NYC you depart from. That's a direct flight, of course, because you're not going to stop for a layover in the mid-Atlantic.

The distance from New York to Cancun is approximately 1,550 miles by air. But what if you want to leave from Avoca Airport outside Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania? It's closer to Cancun, as the crow flies, but your airplane won't follow the crow. You'll fly from Pennsylvania to Chicago or Atlanta and then to Cancun. More miles. Many more hours.

"The shortest distance from point A to point B is a straight line."

It's a mathematical term, used in geometry, but it also philosophical. When it comes to philosophy, we often take the long way around, like flying to Chicago on the way to Cancun.

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Some people hear that God loves them, and their first reaction is, "Not me. I'm too far gone. I've done too much." The Gospel says that's not true.

You're never too far gone. You're never beyond the reach of God's grace and forgiveness.

Peter walked alongside Jesus for three and a half years, absorbing His teaching and witnessing His power. But when push came to shove, outside a mockery of a trial, when three people presented Peter with the truth that he was, in fact, a follower of Jesus, he denied it. He denied Jesus three times. He ran away, knowing he has surely sacrificed his place in Jesus's company.

Paul started his life as Saul, the good son of good Jewish people. He studied under the best teachers, got in with the powerful crowd, and chased Christ followers to put them in jail or to kill them. He heard a report of some Christ followers gathering in Damascus, so he set out with punishment on his mind.

You can look at these stories and say these men were beyond redemption. Peter had all access and he still screwed it up. Paul was traveling the country to kill Christians. Surely God wouldn't forgive them!

But they learned an important lesson: even if you don't take the straight line, the shortest distance in the world is between your repentant heart and God. No matter how far you've gone, turn around. You'll run SMACK into the open arms of God. Both Peter and Paul became leaders of the early church, and we turn to them now as examples of faith.

Jesus told the parable of the Prodigal Son (prodigal means extravagantly wasteful, by the way). The boy insulted his father, took his inheritance -- before his father was dead -- and squandered it. When he was stealing from pig troughs just to eat, he decided he should swallow his pride and go home; he wouldn't beg for forgiveness but rather for a job. He'd ask to be treated no better than his father's servants. He made up his mind and started the long trek home.

While he was still a long way off, his father saw him and started running. "My son was dead and now he is home."

Turn around. Come home.

Listen to a captivating song of truth by Matthew West: Mended, which inspired this post.