Passerby,
There is a great path, or a way (Matthew 7.), in the wilderness of this life. This path is the ‘Way’ that leads to Ruach Elohim (the Great Spirit.), which is in us and around us as we travel together, yet alone, deeper and deeper into the heart of Elohim. “In Her, we live and move and have our being” (Acts 7:28.). We know when our feet are on the path, the ‘Way,’ that Rabbi Jesus taught us by the signs of the great path that we learned from him.

The first of the signs is that the ‘Way’ is not primarily about I, me, and mine. As my dear friend Chaplain Shareida explains, authentic life is not about “Me and my four, and no more” to the exclusion of others. The way is always about the Us and Us together (as in, “Now, let Us make the human-kind; they will be like Us and resemble Us.” Genesis 1:26. More about this later.). No room for I, me, or mine on the ‘Great Path.’ N.T. Wright once said, “While our ‘salvation’ certainly is personal, She never intended it to be individual.”

We are never alone on the ‘Way.’ The Way is the Way of and for the followers. I am not walking the ‘Great Path’ if I am alone. Not that the follower on this path never feels lonely or sometimes even ‘forsaken’ (Psalm 22:1) by the Great Spirit. Loneliness on the way is often the expression of the void in us that can only be filled with Her presence, and St John of the Cross taught helpfully about the ‘Dark Night of the Soul’ in which he felt abandoned. The way is not merely benevolent; it is also equally challenging and even dangerous to the well-being of our false self.

Pass, When you have read St John of the Cross on the Dark Night, read Gerald May’s offering, The Dark Night of the Soul.

Only seekers and followers, the humble, can walk the ‘Way.’ This Way is narrow. There is no room for the certain or the arrogant (might be helpful to you to read Peter Enns, The Sin of Certainty) until they are converted to Love. Certainty is commonly the fruit of an immature religion and can be the antithesis of trust or faith. Still, all who love and who seek to be loved are welcome and, in fact, are already following the ‘Great Path’ (1 John 4:7-8.) described by Jesus. The narrow way is the way of Love, and all other ways end.

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The commitment to arrogance can be particularly strong. I know an angry man, a particularly sad case, who was educated in a Christian fundamentalist university and praised it for “teaching him how to think.” As I came to know him more, it became apparent that they had not taught him how to think so much as how to judge. They had taught him dualistic thinking. According to his own confession, he had not given a thought to the Sacred for the forty years since he had graduated and walked away from god and yet considered himself a fit judge of those who had spent their entire lives committed to seeking and helping us mere mortals in our discovery of a relationship with holiness.

Marcus Borg “is a mere secular Christian,” Thomas Berry’s vision for the healing of our mother earth “is an impossible utopian dream,” and Diarmuid O’Murchu “really spiked my bulls**t meter.” N.T. Wright “uses too many words.”

The suggestion on my part of a “benevolent universe” and a “God of Love with whom we are created to be in a loving relationship,” produced “some believe in that sweet God (with disdain) theory. I don’t.” and, “I will not believe in a God from whom we might expect to receive guidance.” Given that She had sent him literally to my front door, I was able to remain un-typically patient with the arrogance on such a blatant scale for several months, but in the end, I excused myself saying, “I suspect this conversation has well run its course.” I think of him and my emotional response to him, still.

When asked if he believed all paths lead to the same place in religious matters, Fr Richard Rohr remarked, “Heavens no, most paths are dead ends.” Those who follow the way have learned to keep their eyes firmly fixed on the back of the head of Jesus as he leads us into the wilderness. We are only humble followers. The Way belongs to Elohim. She is the Love we seek and the reason we walk.