Seek first the kingdom ...

"Jesus, grilled by the Pharisees on when the kingdom of God would come, answered, 'The kingdom of God doesn't come by counting the days on the calendar. Nor when someone says, 'Look here!' or, 'There it is!' And why? Because God's kingdom is already among you.' (He was referring to himself, God's living kingdom, who was among them.)"

-- Luke 17:20-21 (The Message)

"If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers — most of which are never even seen — don't you think He'll attend to you, take pride in you, do His best for you? What I'm trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God's giving. People who don't know God and the way He works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how He works. Steep your life completely in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don't worry about missing out. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now (both within and all around you), and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes."

-- Matthew 6:30-34 (The Message)


"Perhaps you are strangely disturbed, in ways that it is not even safe to talk about, because you have been leaning on a 'God of the intellect,' a God preached about interminably, but a God whose Presence you have never really felt deeply and personally. Thus, disturbing as the idea may seem, God is truly dead to you, if you are asleep to the activity of His Presence within and all around you. If you are living in the 'far country' of superficial and materialistic living, then for all intents and purposes there is no power beyond the human in you, there is no vast capacity and infinite potential, and prayer is totally ridiculous. If you are not aware of the greater dimension of your nature, then it doesn't exist as far as you are concerned. But when you come to know yourself, when you wake up, when suddenly you come alive to the 'deep within of you,' the amazing depths of you, then God becomes very real to you -- not as another person separate from you, but as an added dimension of you, as a living Presence within and everywhere, ever available to you. Now, when I said that if you are spiritually asleep there is no power beyond the human in you, this is not exactly true -- for a very special reason, namely, the activity of what has been called the Grace of God. This aspect of the divine makeup of man has unfortunately been made either too theologically dogmatic or too metaphysically mystical to be of any real and practical importance or usefulness, and yet it is the most practical, productive, reliable, and useful force in the universe."

-- Eric Butterworth, in Discover the Power Within You


"The search for the 'Way' or your 'Path' requires much hard work, and those who are afraid of hard work had better perhaps remain content with their previous beliefs and mental constructs. But to those who are compelled and unafraid of or undaunted by the intensity of the work, who are burning with the desire to help others and who desire the definite knowledge which is essential before that help can be intelligently given (or withheld), I say that Knowledge is already a part of yourselves, therefore let your effort be not so much to 'obtain' as to 'become' that Knowledge. But how is this to be accomplished? This is a very natural question for you to ask. It is useless to tell you to 'become Knowledge' if you don't know how to accomplish this for yourselves.

This at once brings us to the 'Way' or 'Path' which lies within rather than without. The time has come when man, having vainly sought among the externals of life and failed to realize the ideal, turns again and retraces his steps towards the Source from whence he came. Only when he does this consciously does he find the true entrance to the Path on which he was born to walk. Then will begin for him that great struggle, which brings with it an every increasing joy and peace. Having once realized that the Goal lies within and not without, his whole attitude must become changed. It is no longer a question of adding to his store but rather of getting rid of or subduing all that is not essential to his one true purpose.

He must become purified bodily and spiritually if he would attain the priceless 'Union' which will crown his labours. This cannot be accomplished at once or alone, but without a very definite effort and support it cannot be done at all. The first thing then is a definite effort in the right direction. But what is the right direction? To this I would reply that every man and every woman should strive to formulate and to unite their consciousness more and more with their own highest Ideal. Whether this Ideal be called Jesus Christ, the Buddha, the Higher Self, the True Will, or whether we give it no name, matters little except to the individual. But such an Ideal lies within each one of us, covered, it may be, with sheath after sheath of non-essential worries, ideas, and concerns. The most important point is that we should formulate this Ideal, however vaguely at first, and then work, work so that every action we perform, however humble, may shadow forth the Ideal to which we desire to become united.

More and more we must learn to identify and surrender our lower personalities and desires in order to conform to our Higher ideas. More and more shall we cease to care for the external, physical fruit of our actions as long as the 'Work' itself is rightly done. Gradually we shall feel in closer touch with the Life of all around us, and with our Ideal within."

-- Frater Achad, in "Belief vs. Knowledge"


There's a journey all are invited to inside themselves, and it is usually "The Road Less Traveled" in every case. Many claim it and talk about it - all very intellectually, religiously, often quite piously - but few actually follow it, walking it diligently with passion, perseverence, and purpose. It's so much easier to just talk about.

And here is my Path, my Way, the road on which I travel:


John 14

The Road

1-4 "Don't let this throw you. You trust God, don't you? Trust me. There is plenty of room for you in my Father's home. If that weren't so, would I have told you that I'm on my way to get a room ready for you? And if I'm on my way to get your room ready, I'll come back and get you so you can live where I live. And you already know the road I'm taking."

5Thomas said, "Master, we have no idea where you're going. How do you expect us to know the road?"

6-7Jesus said, "I am the Road, also the Truth, also the Life. No one gets to the Father apart from me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him. You've even seen him!"

8Philip said, "Master, show us the Father; then we'll be content."

9-10"You've been with me all this time, Philip, and you still don't understand? To see me is to see the Father. So how can you ask, 'Where is the Father?' Don't you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I speak to you aren't mere words. I don't just make them up on my own. The Father who resides in me crafts each word into a divine act.

11-14"Believe me: I am in my Father and my Father is in me. If you can't believe that, believe what you see — these works. The person who trusts me will not only do what I'm doing but even greater things, because I, on my way to the Father, am giving you the same work to do that I've been doing. You can count on it. From now on, whatever you request along the lines of who I am and what I am doing, I'll do it. That's how the Father will be seen for who He is in the Son. I mean it. Whatever you request in this way, I'll do."


"Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." -- Mark 1:17 (NIV)

"... whatever you ask for in prayer (while doing this work, walking this path),
believe that you have received it, and it will be yours." -- Mark 11:24 (NIV)



And it is meant to be all joy, but this is a conscious choice, and then along comes Henri again:


Choosing Joy (Henri Nouwen Society)

Joy is what makes life worth living, but for many joy seems hard to find. They complain that their lives are sorrowful and depressing. What then brings the joy we so much desire? Are some people just lucky, while others have run out of luck? Strange as it may sound, we can simply choose joy. Two people can be part of the same event, but one may choose to live it quite differently than the other. One may choose to trust that what happened, painful as it may be, holds a powerful, purposeful promise. The other may choose despair and be destroyed by it. What makes us human is precisely this freedom of choice.


And here is my choice, every day, captured in the signature of my every email:

"helping people wake up and come alive,
connect deeply with God, themselves, and others,
and choose a life of passion, purpose, and self-responsibility"