Ridin' Fences

"Desperado, why don't you come to your senses?
You been out ridin' fences for so long now
Oh, you're a hard one
I know that you got your reasons
These things that are pleasin' you
Can hurt you somehow."

These Eagles' lyrics have been running through my head for the last few days. Random? Yes and no. While I can't remember the last time I heard this song, it doesn't surprise me in the least that I've been humming this particular verse. I think God can (and will) use anything to grab our attention when He needs to, even a song written by Don Henley. I know He's telling me to get off the fence . . . at least in one area in particular.

Those who are experts in "riding fences", or at least have taken a ride on one before, know what it feels up there. It can be exciting at first, no doubt; you might even feel free with one foot in and one foot out, like you "beat the system" somehow. But, unless you jump off the fence quickly, feelings of confusion, lonliness, and, yes, even pain begin to creep in. It's inevitable.

C.S. Lewis, the great philosopher, once wrote, "If you are continually stirred and fail to act, the time will come when you will be unable to act." In other words, passivity (or in this case, fence riding) can and will lead to paralysis. And in the life of a believer, paralysis is the worst ailment to have.

Fence-riders are cowards; they're afraid to make a decision one way or the other, afraid to take a stand, worried about what people on one side of the fence or the other will think of them. Fence-riders are selfish; they want what they think is the best both sides of the fence have to offer. Fence-riders are ineffective and insecure, respected by no one.

I don't want to be a fence-rider.