What about the Red Line?

Please cut me a break with this post.  I am running the risk of politicizing what I intend to be the world from the religious perspective—and the hints of God in the world.  Needless to say, everything keeps coming back to that red line of Pres. Obama in Syria and that crossing it with chemical weapons would be a “game changer.” 

Let’s work with that red line. As soon as it was drawn, it was like drawing the “line in the sand”—cross it, and we will respond militarily—so goes the threat.  That’s my very straightforward point.  Draw a line in the sand and threaten retaliation.  The line in the sand is the point where conflict begins. Simple enough, right? 

Go back to the desert. Look at the footsteps.  Instead of a line, what do you see?  There’s a pathway there, a line of footprints to follow—the journey beyond yourself.  The Jesus I find in Scripture left footprints for people to follow—not lines to cross into conflict.  He was always leaving footprints to entice people to get up and get going with the their lives.  It was not enough to feed the hungry, heal the sick, raise the dead, open the eyes of the blind—no! it was what people did with their lives and the freedom to follow his footsteps.