Monday, May 9, 2011

Why being poor in spirit is essential for the trip

What does it mean to hold out my hands empty, poor in spirit? For this reformed follower of the American way, radical conversion. Poverty of spirit means clarity. I am poor, small, and easily lose my footing following the wrong path…any other belief in my own orientation skills is just a lie. But, and here’s the difference to why poverty of spirit is so utterly freeing in comparison with my usual self-reliance, the God of the Universe strides beside me. The inheritance of the saints, the power of the Universe, the joyful, eternal Gift-Giver is located within the Person always present. Here’s the working image: I am Lucy from CS Lewis Narnia Chronicles with her hands intertwined in the mane of Aslan, walking confidently, purposefully into the world. Never alone. Not ever alone.



Life, Way, Truth, Bread, Light, Peace, Creator and Re-Creator, …solid, unchanging, wave-calmer. He is here.

Take a moment to breathe in that game-changer. He is here. My healthy poverty is knowing that any other form of Life not coming from abiding in Him is counterfeit, any other bread moldy, any other water, polluted, any other truth, just embarrassing elvis-imitator mimicry.

My Father encouraged me to put a for-sale sign outside of my current self-reliant life, move down the street to a big welcome and curl up to dwell in the God of the Universe.


This is what this book is about: the for-sale sign, the moving and the path, sometimes rocky… of discovering that finding this new home was worth everything.

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