Balconeers

My husband is reading a book that postulates life in this metaphor.  Believers are traveling a road.  Non-believers are on a balcony above the road, watching the travelers.  This simple image really captured my imagination. 

If unbelievers were ‘balconeers,’ one can understand why they may feel superior.  They are at rest, literally looking down on the believers.  To join them would actually call for a fall or tumble. How scary is that?  Why would anyone want to give up the shelter and rest of the balcony to walk on the dusty road to who-knows-where?  It is understandable that an unbeliever would resist.

As I continued to consider this picture, I could understand how unbelievers really only see portions of the Christian life.  They are really incapable of perceiving the whole picture unless they walk alongside the Christian.  The perspectives are so different, there is really little wonder why they have trouble relating to one another.

It also explains how the unbelievers can stand in judgment.  They can see passing travelers stumble.  They can see them dirty, bruised from falls, tired, hot, thirsty.  Let’s face it, no Christian walk is without stumbling blocks and we all are guilty of taking some serious jean-ripping spills.  The unbeliever stands aloft and wonders what on earth we are doing down there.

But from the perspective of the believer, there is so much more.  The balconeer’s view is so cripplingly limited.  But the traveler moves on.  There is a destination and purpose.  There are blessings along the way, adventures and lessons.  They may look up and see a balconeer.  That is a life literally going nowhere.  There is no purpose.  There is no destination.  The balconeer is stagnate.

Very interesting to me.