The Trackless Path

Looking forward, I see family, the family of God

Knit together with the chords of love and sacrifice,

And the hope of what we were before we fell.

And the One who knows sheds the sacred comfort

Through grace upon all those who turn to Him,

And through knowledge to some few

Who sacrifice in similitude

Of Him.

The idea of the “right way” often causes us to miss the movement

And in the movement we have life, the life that moves

At the breath of that silent voice that speaks

In whispers, out of the unseen place.

So that, the right way is the way

That hears and moves

And changes,

Humbling bending, blowing, finding life

In the most unexpected places.

John 3:7-8 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.

When I was young, I used to pray the way I wish,

But I no longer care to play games I cannot win.

Instead, I skip ahead to the final thing I hope for.

I imagine the end result clearly as if

It has already happened

And give thanks.

And if

There swells within my bosom

That unmistakable joy of confirmation,

I simply believe that it will be so.

If it does not, I let it go.

It is a way to stop trifling with God 

And begin the work of aligning our will with His.

Keep your eyes forward.

Don’t look back. 

Some are lost in a cause.

And others can’t forgive.

But you will not help them 

By pretending that darkness is light.

All the same, be kind.

Kindness is part of the way.

And toward what, toward what?

Toward the light that shines out of the Holy Place.

If the veil that covers our minds with darkness were rent

We would see eye to eye. And we would not think

That we were better than another.

It is only this earth

That makes it appear so.

Up there, we are all the same.

And there is a mystery in it. 

But we can believe it if we try.

We can imagine how it might be.

And such imagining brings humility,

And love, I think. At least it does for me.

This world hides a multitude of truths that make for heaven,

It makes it look like the only kin we have are the ones 

Whose DNA most closely resemble ours,

When in reality we are all one.

And so the only way to love the ones

Who do not look like us is to imagine 

That the foreign ones are ours.

It is not a natural thing to do.

But if we try, we can find ourselves loving all sorts of people

In the way we love our own.

Another thing that the world hides is the love that falls.

There is the love that loves. That one we know.

But there is also the love of the one that condescends

To fall from heaven. Sometimes I wonder if it is the greater love.

This world makes it look like the ones that cause us pain,

The ones who hate us or persecute us

Or cause us the most trouble 

Are our enemies.

But it is possible to imagine that they are our greatest friends, our nearest kin.

And doesn’t that make sense? Is it not those who test and try us 

That cause us to grow more close to heaven.

So that through imagination,

We can even feel love flowing from those the world calls our enemies.

I know that these ideas are antithetical to the thing we call reality.

They may even be considered evil by those who can’t imagine

That their enemies could have, through love,

Made a conscious choice to fall

In that eternal world from which we came.

But since the practice of imagining these things has caused me to love more

And to feel more love, even to feel at times that I am in the midst of heaven,

I am persuaded that it is the world's reality that’s off.

Opulence is usually connected to scarcity, not wealth.

A true apologist does not tear down,

His job is to present precious light.

And in the presence of that light

The lovers of light, of their own accord,

Move toward the light, and by doing so,

Necessarily, move away from darkness.

All else is contention. And contention, in the end,

Robs you of even the light you already think you have.

We are not on the same path, and that’s ok.

It appears that we are because we can agree 

To some extent and in some things.

And that is an old comfort,

But one upon which

I no longer rely.

All the same, I am grateful that our lives have touched,

And I will hold you in my heart to spite that fact,

And trust, that both of us are being led 

To the place we need to be.

And in that, we are not separated.

Some can see the unseen place afar

And some see the problems of the seen

And those that travel toward the unseen place

Cannot find reconciliation with those whose eyes are here.

Because those who see the seen alone

Believe that they must rectify

The problems that they see.

And those who see the unseen place

Renounce their ability to change the seen.

They leave Egypt to its own devices.