Mistakes We Knew We Were Making

I feel incredibly important today. I really like Van Morrison's song Foreign Window. It reminds that there have been times in my life when I've been freed from all of the things that I think are important to my identity. You know, that I don't need to be walking around on the dirt of this place calling myself something I'm not. That I don't need to drink flavored water anymore, that I'm ready for the purity and simpleness of the real thing.

Last night I stayed up very late reading A Heart Breaking Work of Staggering Genius because it is important to me to wait a while on buzz books. It's good, and David Eggers knows it. I've honored him by making one of his lines the title of this post, and soon there will be a holiday of some sort, and we'll all need to wait an extra day to get our mail.

I would say that it is important for people to be able to love each other. I think it's interesting how much time gets spent arguing the relativity of love. "No no, you don't understand, I loved them". We've made it so that almost any action or feeling can be traced back to love (or any emotion for that matter) if we really want it to. Everything is safe and comfortable that way. My love is the color blue even if it really isn't.

There are times I think the Narrow Gate that Jesus describes as the Way, you know truth and goodness, is really visible in everyone's life. I think people who hear about Jesus see the Narrow Gate and there is some part of them that knows that it is good, and of course I mean good, really good in the way is healthy for us, not exactly comfortable. I think people see that and get overwhelmed at the task of seeking it, because in all honesty who would think so highly of themselves that they could change to become anything that might be called righteous? To "become good" (as most people seem to see it) is a fantastic pursuit.

More and more I am understanding that I cannot call myself to "become good" or even work at making myself like that. It's simply not my place. Jesus himself says "Who is good but God alone?" I don't think that the Narrow Gate is the choice to become good, but the choice to live in Reality (taking the capitalization of reality from J.B. Phillips). It's the choice to seek the principles that God intended to be of focus when He created humans (however that happened) and we enjoyed closeness and True Love.

I'm going to hang out with my friends at the Arab-American Learning Center soon, and the Spirit will show me something great, because He always does.