H,
That is why it is the thing
above all things. It will test you to your core. Remember in our younger years
when we gave God all these excuses for not turning to Him immediately? On the
top of that list was the radical way we knew it would change our lives. We knew
it will require giving up some of our pleasure and embracing the intangible and
tangible pain floating around this present state of things. We did not want
that change even though we needed it.
The disciplines of God are
not easy. They are like a wall impossible to scale. The high standard of love
is not for an easy mind or a feckless soul or body. It is for those whose souls
are alight with a yearning and destiny for the eternal. It is like this: a
crippled man or woman going for a world record on a solitary trek around the
world through land and water.
We are told it is hard from
the onset. Yet, that is only half of the story. The other, perhaps more crucial,
part is that the crippling is a blessing in disguise. It allows us to know our
true state in the cosmos. It fills us with the humility we need to approach help.
It frees us of the tyranny of being our own God.
The solitary trek is not
supposed to be lonely. We have a presence that beckons us to look up and soar. To
have the vision to see through pain and to become truly helpless, the sort of
children that accept and live in the Kingdom of God. Of the lion, the ox and
the human face described in the book of revelations, the eagle is a place
apart. There is an eagle with healing in His wings. He beckons crippled man and
woman to climb upon the strong back of ages and soar through the movements,
crescendos and conclusion of this very human life.