The other side is so far away. It doesn’t really matter what we’re talking about; crossing from one side to the other is brutal. Crossing the ocean may as well have meant flying to the moon until 531 years ago. Took 61 days, 3,100 miles?! Crossing the Continental Divide felt virtually impossible until Lewis and Clark showed early America the way. (Took over 2 years for the whole journey- 8,000 miles and only one of them died.) Even crossing the Chattahoochee River in some places would put your life at risk (by drowning or bacteria!).

Crossing the political aisle is a thing of the past.

Crossing the theological spectrum is nearly so.

Crossing from one side to the other means charting new paths, having the courage to try, persevering through the innumerable obstacles along the way and the conviction of why it matters that the journey continues. In short, it’s hard work.

This is exactly what we see in Jesus. There is a collection of stories about Jesus that Mark includes in his Gospel that paint such a powerful picture for us. They reveal Jesus’s courage, conviction and commitment to moving from one side to the other, and, when taken together, challenge the way we engage our families, workplaces, neighborhoods, online communities and cultural reality.