Parakalein

I was out for a morning jog winding through the cascading countryside, enjoying the freedom of movement and the breath of life. I came upon a split in the path ahead of me was a wide path that looked safe and was obviously frequently traveled. Next to it was a narrow path all overgrown, somewhat uncharted and obviously less traveled. As I considered which path to take, I reasoned that the one path was safe and though not easy well traveled. The other was scary. It looked like no one had dared taken this path. Reason tipped me toward taking that path. Emotions too. Something inside of me led me to take the narrow path. I knew it was the path of courage and faith. The other path was the way of comfort and ease. Intuition and trust in self had tipped me in a different direction

I was traveling along slower but freer, courageous not fearful, careful but calm.
“Narrow is the way that leads to life and few there be that find it. Wide is the path that leads to destruction and many there be that follow it.”

For years of living I have believed that the way to God and the way to know God is to choose the narrow way of eternal life rather than the wide way of living for today, going for all the gusto! I not so suddenly but very deliberately have shifted in my belief. The narrow way is externally defined as a particular way of a particular belief. The way of Jesus is a narrow way. It is not the way of any particular theology or church doctrine. That would be an external belief brought inside. I sued to think that way much like a child believes what he is told. I put away that child. I realized another child found his own inner path free of outer direction. It was not that the narrow way was a particular truth that was universally true in a religious sense. It was a universal truth from the internal universe. The narrow truth was to care for the internal would which is all that is eternal. The wide way that leads to destruction is focusing on the external world with all that it has to offer. This includes physical, emotional, social and even religious truths or ways. The wide way was he way of self-indulgence, self-inflation, and self-absorption. It was a way of living in the external world for the external benefits of that world. The narrow way is the way of caring for the internal world. It is living form the inside out rather than from the outside in.

The narrow path leads to widening my horizons and broadening my living. It is the path that leads to life.

In all honesty I did not choose the narrow path in the physical reality of my jogging, The narrow path looked to uncharted and scary. However it did provoke the thoughts and realities of inner life and internal choices. When given the opportunity to sit it out or go the way of most people, I try to choose the narrow way. This is the way of spiritual realities that are of the inner, internal and eternal world. The way of the external world and all its choices leads to the destruction of the wisdom of the inner world. Choosing to be honest internally and with you is the narrow way.

The narrow way is the way of true honesty within oneself, toward others and toward oneself. It is the way of calmness, compassion, courage and creativity.