to gird yourself and walk

You hear about the meek and the peacemakers and the poor. But you don't often hear about the one Matt11:6 names:

"And blessed is he who keeps from stumbling over me."

Right off the bat, it's a great visual. Because God is always trying to do something, and here you are not watching where you're walking and tripping all over the Lord. Because that's the metaphor, isn't it? You not watching where you're walking? This is the walk of faith, isn't it? Prudent, then, to keep your eye on the Way.

But then you also understand what He's getting at. He's not of this world, He reminds us. Of course He will antagonize the world. Antagonize you in this world. Learning not to panic when that tension occurs, learning how to deal with that tension, learning how to overcome that tension -- the man who can do that knows what he's doing, doesn't he? Or related to yesterday, knows he can't do anything and lets the only One who can do something do it. That's the ticket.