As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace (Ephesians 4:1-3). In recent weeks, I offered devotions on finishing well and starting well. I ended the second one by alluding to the possibility of mid-life course corrections. That is what I want to pick up on today. Like many of you, our family has taken several long road trips. Today, with GPSs in our cars and on our phones, it takes some effort to get lost. Before such technology, when we used Triptiks from CAA it was much easier. For years, we had a big map atlas that had a page for each province and state. Of course, these quickly became outdated, thus inaccurate. On occasion, we would lose the road we intended to take and would have to find our way back. Such diversions happen in Christian discipleship as well. At times, they are caused by sinful choices we make. Other times, the events of life blow us off course. It might also be that we drift simply through inattention or minor distractions. And so, it can happen that we need a course correction. The words of our text are helpful in this regard. They contain two pointers for us. First, they remind us that God's calling to us is not primarily about our 'occupation' in life. Rather, our calling is mainly about character, "be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love". Jesus is more concerned about how we live than what we do. How we behave while engaged in our occupation is more important to God than what we are doing (with some exceptions, of course). And second, Jesus is concerned that we have a healthy connection with the fellowship of believers. He calls each of us to contribute in a healthy way to the life of the church. We all need to participate in a way that leads to both unity and maturity in the fellowship. Here, we need to think beyond the structures of the church. Even if we do not have an official title, we are still called to contribute to the building up of healthy Chrisitan community. "Unity and Maturity in the Body of Christ" is the title the NIV editors gave this section. I think they are spot on. Starting well, finishing well, course corrections are all good things for us to reflect on. We should ponder them from a Christian perspective. Often, we think about those things from the perspective of 'worldly success.' An old bumper sticker read, "the one with the most toys wins." Toys are not necessarily material possessions; they can be accomplishments of any kind, things we have built for ourselves. Something we can point to at the end of life and say, "I built that." If its time for a mid-life course correction, it is possible that you need to consider what you are doing. But it is more important to consider 'how you are living.' Are you living a life worthy of the calling you have received from Jesus? Are you being 'completely humble and gentle; patient, bearing with others in love'? Are you 'making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace'? As you journey on into the week ahead, go with the blessing of God:           May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you : wherever he may send you. May he guide you through the wilderness : protect you through the storm. May he bring you home rejoicing : at the wonders he has shown you. May he bring you home rejoicing : once again into our doors.

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