The Path Goes Ever On and On

I've found a companion on this journey. In truth there are many, but this new one is so very appropriate. "God sent" is the most accurate word, and I think he might say that's exactly the point, if he were alive. In my quest to Seek the Other, the life of Thomas Merton is exemplary, and so too his writings. Most especially the collection entitled "Seeds of Contemplation" Seeds indeed! A potential harvest of life changing meditations. His journey, more than most, is founded at the heart of seeking the other. Looking back on where I've been this last two years I can see we were meant for each other. He is my guide or my predecessor, which ever is less idolatrous. Or maybe I should say he has taken a very direct route of the narrow path, and made deep its groves and foot falls.

In any case it is like the word in flesh once again when I read his work. The man himself is a redemptive case, like us all, I have no doubt. My point is not to set him further apart, he would not appreciate that very much. He has run the race though, and done it recently. The text is brought to life for me. The words of Jesus are accessible to my heart in a way that bypasses the filters of my mind, and the mind can be such a hindrance. The layers of time must be pealed back by an incarnation of the Lord's work, displayed in his people. This is done by his holy spirit and so my confession today is confidence in Jesus' promise. The spirit of truth is a guide, a councilor to truth. One we could not go with out. The councilor leads us into all of God's will, and that is the revelation at which I have arrived recently. We, us, ourselves cannot lead our selves in the perfect will of the father. His will for us has nothing to do with us. This is the edge of a great mystery. One revealed in Christ and made as promise in his resurrection. He bares testimony of the fathers will: to keep your life is to loose it and laying it down is to gain it, and this is all proved, as Paul would say, in the fact that he was raised from the dead. Acts Chapter 17.

I've been sick this week, but I have not been in lack. I have found that suffering can lead us so very deep along this road. High and wide, deep and far. It is the path to love. Let me explain. If you've ever done work, used your energy to accomplish something worth while you should know that it requires strain to do so. Suffering is very different from misery in this way. You know its misery if you're not getting anything out of it. When suffering occurs you've done some work. In misery there is no purpose. Suffering is purpose, or it has it in the lord. Nothing of value can be gained with out an exertion of the self anyways. In exertion the self must be put to the side, and pain endured for the creation of something new. Thomas puts it this way:

"In order to become myself I must cease to be what I always thought I wanted to be,

and in order to find myself I must go outside myself, and in order to live I have to die."

Every moment in life, pleasant or not is an opportunity to take in a seed of truth that is in part a piece of the father's self. For he has given himself to us by displaying it in all of creation (Romans 1:20)

The baring of our crosses is the path Jesus has laid before us, to save us from our selves and the unreality of a life centered around self. It is similar to his commandment: Love each other as I have loved you. For there is no greater love than this: to lay down your life for your friends." in order to abide in him and him we must not abide in us. When this happens he abides in us and his love is made a house and temple in our hearts. The living God with in a humble chamber, broken and fallen. This is the redemption of our bodies. God's temple has no room for anything else but he himself. At first thought this suffering sounds like a burden, but this is not true for Jesus yoke is easy and his burden well you know. The truth is, as far as I can explain it, love is a selfless cause that requires work, a work that is not so hard when we get outside ourselves. This is the grace of suffering: it gets you outside yourself, or it should. Anything else is misery. God is love, and love is his command. In it we abide and he remains. Ever giving, but ever receiving and all from the other to the other, who in the end is God. This is the design of the trinity.

Please join me, reap a harvest in love this day.

Ps: thanks mom this book is soo good.