Thoughts from the Woods

I cannot even understand a single tree.  I cannot count the leaves. I cannot count the triangles of light as the sun dances through the leaves and is blown by the wind.  I could never count that fast nor could I even comprehend the number once it was spoken. It is very difficult for my petty mind to comprehend the number 100, let alone the number of atoms within a tree or my hand. So how the hell am I supposed to be able to know anything about God?!? The distance between myself and God is certainly smaller than the distance between myself and a tree or a deer or an Other Human Being (which is its own universe entirely).  We are knit together as individuals but we do not build or think or destroy as individuals solely but also as communities.  This is how humans are and it is mysterious.  We think together.  We cannot think alone; those who do are (rightly? wrongly?) called “insane.” We take on the form of the environment around us; we are lemmings.  

Yet is it just the blind leading the blind? I don’t think so.  We have leaders or a Leader, an enlightened one who points the Way to the rest of us. “Follow me,” he insists “because I’ll show you how we get to the kingdom of God where shalom reigns.”  It isn’t the way of the world which worships other gods like money, sex, power, pleasure, etc. It is the Path of God and the Way is narrow.  Few walk it because doing so hurts; it hurts terribly. But as you walk it, just remember: 

Trust. 

Believe.
Repent.

Persevere. 

Overcome evil with good. 

Yield. 

Surrender. 

Hold on, let go. 

Accept.

Do not fear.
Love.
Hope.
Trust!

These principles are a light for us.