Grace

…. there is no entry fee,

but it will cost you plenty

to make this journey.

 

Pack a lunch.  Lose your map.

Travel lightly. The weather

is unpredictable.

                     Jan Richardson, In Wisdom’s Path, p.57

 

See Luke 14:25-33

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this is not an easy way

this way of Jesus

 

it starts in grace

and ends in grace

but ah, in between

 

it is a twisted path

 

the instructions are simple

love God

love yourself

love others

 

but as we wander we forget the instructions

there is so much noise

so many voices clamoring in our ears

and our vision is clouded as we walk in the smog

of our biases

 

Striving, we grow hungry

for power and wealth

stopping perhaps to eat spiritual junk food

that hinders us on our way

 

we carry with us way too much baggage,

forgetting that we were told to travel light

 

we still carry all those things we

were told to lay down, there at the portal of grace

our fear, our hate

our failures,

 

and so we pledge allegiance to other gods

we forget to love ourselves

and we fail to love others

 

but there was grace at the beginning

and there is grace at the end

 

and the way remains

and from time to time,

as we puzzle along other paths

we find it again

 

and we turn

onto that narrow way

which demands our all

 

which, if we will travel it

asks us for clear eyes

and open hearts

and open hands

 

and asks to lay down our egos

and empty our pockets

and cede power

 

and be ordinary radicals (Claibourne)

who lift others up

and help them along the way

 

grace enables us to start

grace sustains us along the way

and grace greets us at the end