Day 138d: Until the Deed is DONE … (September 14, 2019)
And onward I rolled, coming eventually to the Royal Oak Presbyterian Church on the far outskirts of town; a place that called for me to enter, and an entrance that called for me to sit once again (just as I had done so many times in Europe during the first half of this Journey) in solaced solitude for a time – re-professing my heartfelt gratitude for having been “allowed” to undertake this Journey at all*, and re-affirming my steadfast resolve to carry ever-onward until the Deed is Done …
*I am, of course, a complete & full-faithed believer in Free Will, and as such know that engaging such a Grand Walk has always been “allowed.” That said, I also have come to appreciate that many are born into circumstances that make such decisions well-nigh impossible to make, much less even recognize. Yes, every functioning human being has the equal capacity to make his or her life one of service instead of accumulation or comfort, and yet my particular life has led me to see such a choice in crystalline fashion. True enough, I was the one who had to make the leap onto the glowing path presented me, and yet I am to this day still thankful that this choice presented itself to me repeatedly and in a way that was beyond overlook or causal dismissal.
“We all need to question the value of both confinement and certainty. An enclosed community in any form – whether physical or intellectual or emotional – is per se toxic. It ever festers and always ultimately stagnates. The wrong sort of people are drawn to it, and those are the ones who thrive there … And with this in mind let us realize that the Church does not need brilliant personalities or persuasive speakers or even the piously devout. No, what the Church needs – and needs desperately – are faithful followers of The Way of Jesus Christ. And this is a happy rediscovery for the Christian who begins to walk this way – for the one who begins to live to serve rather than to be served and to love rather than to be loved. Dislike and hatred fade and disappear. There is no more personal tensions or estrangements that cannot be easily overcome by intercessions of selfless kindness. This life of ‘intercessory caring’ is the purifying bath into which the individual and the fellowship must both enter every day. The struggle we undergo with our brothers & sisters in these times of trial & turmoil may be a difficult ones, and yet that struggle ever contains the promise that it will ever gain its goal.” ~ inspired by Lucy Hughes-Hallett & Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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