A ROAD LESS TRAVELLED?
It's easy at times to get led by the nose: the nose of our own desires,
preferences, wishes and wants. Or, we get led by the nose of someone
else's desires, yens, quirks, or even ... demands, because we want so
much to please them. Faith cuts a different path. Jesus once put it
quite starkly:
"Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few." (Matthew 7:14)
Faith cuts a path away from anything determined by or desired by Ego (our own, or someone else's); a path that still calls us to love ourselves so that we are free to love others and other causes without conditions. And Jesus is right, it ain't easy. Rev. Ted Loder noted it by creating this journal entry: "The Narrow Way of Trust":
"God, give me courage to confront myself honestly, shuck the pretense, strip to the real;
to act justly with those close to me, advocate justice for those at some remove;
to work to heal what is injured in my life and celebrate the wondrous rest.
O God, lead me in the narrow way of trust for wide is the way of distrust,
painful the destruction it twists to.
Lighten the baggage I load on myself and others when I behave
as though I were surer of my choices than I am, or ever can be.
Ease my anxiety about being wrong or exposed as a fool, for I am always at least a little of both and all the more when I deny I am either.
Deepen my trust that together we can unravel the snarls of my life, the knots I tie myself into,
that, so relieved, I might help untie the knots I tie others into.
Then go with me into awe or ache so deep I am force to sort out what matters,
and to be buoyed by it, in this illusion-flooded world
Empower me to be a bold participant, rather than a timid saint in waiting,
in the difficult ordinariness of now;
to exercise the authority of honesty, rather than to defer to power, or deceive to get it;
to influence someone for justice, rather than impress anyone for gain;
and, by grace, to find treasures of joy, of friendship, of peace
hidden in the fields of the daily you give me to plow."
(Wrestling the Light, 1991)
O, yes, let us go a-wandering walking by faith and not by sight.
