After a number of days in the wilderness of the Olympic National Park, I had made my way to civilization — Seattle. It was my first night there, and I was only planning on being there that one night. So as I settled into my hotel room (yes, I cheated one night) I was faced with the decision of whether to go to a local Starbucks or drive the half hour into downtown to go to the original Starbucks. “How often am I going to be in Seattle and have the opportunity to go to the actual original Starbucks?” I thought. A half hour later I stood in front of the old brick roads of the Public Market with the excitement welling up inside of me that I was going to spend the next two hours quietly enjoying a cup of coffee while reading a book in the original Starbucks. There was the sign with the original logo and I was literally feet away from the Public Market, so I knew this was the original.
Then 10 o’clock came around and they were closing up and I decided rather than just walking straight to my car I would do a little sight-seeing. So I walked across the street to check out the actual market (even though everything was closed down by that time) and then I saw it.
I just turned the corner of the road I had been on for two hours and there it was on that back road. The truly original Starbucks. That’s right. Here all this time I thought I’d been at the original when I was actually about a half-block away. I couldn’t believe it!
There’s something depressing almost about being so close and then realizing you weren’t there. I wouldn’t have felt nearly as dumb and a bit sad if I had just gotten my coffee at one farther away, but it was thinking that I’d arrived when I hadn’t that made it so frustrating. It was being so close yet not actually there that was the real problem.
Luke tells us a story of another man who had gotten so close and yet missed it altogether in chapter 18 of his gospel. We only know him as “the rich young ruler” but he had the opportunity to be the 13th disciple. It’s crazy for me to believe, but this man stood face to face with Jesus and told him that he’d kept the law to a T and had Jesus actually invite him personally to be one of his followers (something that did NOT happen for everyone) and walked away.
Rich (as we’ll call him) was so close. He hadn’t committed adultery, stolen, murdered, lied or even dishonored his parents. Jesus didn’t argue with him when he said this, so I’m compelled to believe it was pretty true. But then Jesus tells Rich to turn the corner and go to the original store. He tells him to sell everything he had and give to the poor. There was no ambiguity, no lack of clarity at all, in the request. We sometimes like to pretend that God isn’t clear when He absolutely is, so that we can be satisfied a half-block away.
For Rich it was his money that kept him from the original. For you it could be the same. Or it could be a relationship. Or it could be an unwillingness to trust God. Or it could be an unhealthy (sinful or not) habit. Or it could be busyness. Or it could be a multitude of other things. But what is it? What is it that is wanting to keep you at the “close enough” spot when the original is just around the corner? And are you willing to make the potentially tough journey before it’s too late? How dissatisfied are you with just being close?