The Path is strewn with pebbles, stones, and boulders!

A Montana Reject and Proud Raving Lunatic

All of our life involves incredible risk. We begin by being protected from it by our mothers and fathers, and in the process of maturing, we learn to completely overlook most of it.

The trials of life can be compared to getting pebbles in our shoes, stumbling on stones, and having to figure a way around huge boulders blocking our path.

The pebble is small and really no more than a nuisance, and in this analogy is a metaphore for people who speak badly of us, dislike us without taking the time to get to know us, or take advantage of us.

The stone is larger, and can cause pain if we are hit by it or accidentally step on it. Stones are those who do get to know us, dislike us, and intentionally take advantage of us. Stones can cause traumatic emotional damage.

Boulders are huge and can crush us. Boulders are people, places, and things that should be avoided at all costs.

Later!

I Believe

A Montana Reject and Proud Raving Lunatic

Crisis of faith. Doesn't really matter ... life is a series of doubts, uncertainties, and lapses in our ability to unconditionally believe.

Some of us have traumatic lapses .... such as agnostics or atheism. I did ... for years and years. Didn't matter.

I got an email today that troubled me. It implied that Christ only would hear the minority of people who truly, wholly believed in Him.

I can't accept that idea at all. My God listens to all regardless of religious affiliation. If He didn't ... or more apt perhaps if I didn't believe this way, I simply could not believe that He existed at all.

I was taught that Christ came to save the least amongst us ... the truly sinful, and unworthy. I will stick with that belief and take my chances.

My God loves all of humanity, and speaks to us all according to our individual need.

Later

Be a good shepherd.

A Montana Reject and Proud Raving Lunatic

What criteria do you use to define yourself?

For a good part of my life, I defined myself by what I hated, and acted accordingly. It took a pretty severe shock to my system, and a couple days at a retreat examining my relationship with God and the failure of my marriage to realize that I had missed something vital and fundamental to my spiritual journey.

The admonition "Love thy neighbor, as thyself" became clearer to me. Slowly, I came to understand that before I could interact effectively and positively with those around me, I first had to learn to interact effectively and positively "with myself!" For me, the most difficult task I had faced in my life up to that point was "loving myself." This made it virtually impossible to even begin to understand how to love others.

There is a parable in the Bible about tending to ones flock. I never understood what that really meant. I thought that tending to my flock meant I had to (by any means possible) reign in those around me who didn't conform to my ideals and wishes. It wasn't until I learned to love myself and accept my shortcomings and strengths as a part of the whole me, that I understood that before I could be an effective shepherd I had to be in touch with "my flock" and leave other flocks alone. A good shepherd doesn't after all take it upon himself to try to control and herd another shepherds flock, he pays close attention to his own and gently nudges them towards the sweet grass and water. Done any other way, the competent shepherd knows that his sheep will scatter in every direction.

For ME, it doesn't work any other way. I am paying close attention to my attitudes and actions while letting the attitude and actions of others not affect my own as much as possible. I accept that not everyone thinks or feels as I do, and have come to understand that it is these differences that make the whole of humanity such a beautiful and wonderful thing.

Later!