Pilgrimage

NOTE TO SELF
Begin thinking about a place to make a pilgrimage. Maybe when I retire. If I retire.

Thomas a Kempis said:
"Keep yourself a stranger and pilgrim upon this earth, to whom the affairs of this world are of no concern. Keep your heart free and lifted up to God, for here you have no abiding city."

I don't really know too much about words. Don't know a lot about a lot of things. I'm what you would call a simple mind. But, in looking at the word "pilgrimage", it looks kinda like "pilgrim" "age". Is this our pilgrim age? You know, 'we're all just strangers here, on our way to somewhere else.'

How much time do I spend trying to "fit in"? Trying to be "relevant"? Trying to keep up with the times and be "normal"? How freeing it would be to forget all that. Not that I should try to be different, or should completely disregard all that's going on around me. But a pilgrim packs light. Is free and easy and unencumbered. Stands out - not on purpose - but because they are living in, or from, another time, another dimension, another mental framework.

AFFAIRS
Affairs aren't real, you know. The "affairs of this world." They should be no concern. And what are affairs? Are they not a striving for something you're missing; doing something you don't want to do to try to get what you don't have? You could even say affairs are just "business". Monkey business. And it's not real. Not really.

What if what is real is that which we cannot see. What if our eyes decieve us; and our senses and feelings and all that stuff. And what is real is the "what is, what was, and what is to come." You know, it's not just "now"... but it's all of it together. What is real is what has happened, what is happening, and what will happen. And when I reach my destination, it won't just be the me that was there at the end - it will be the "whole" me... the me from when I was young, the me from middle age, the me with more wisdom than I have now.

IN THE NOW
Today was such a weird day. After having thought about a situation all weekend (see previous post), I had someone come into my office this morning and confess the exact same thing to me. Talk about God planning ahead.

I want to be a stranger to the culture. Not that I'm unaware of what's going on, and not that I don't seek to understand human behavior from a cultural standpoint. But I want to look at it as a pilgrim just passing through. Culture is not final. It is not real. It is not defining. It is temporary; already out-dated; waiting to be museumated.

I want to look at life in such a way that I can see all the way through. I don't know how you do that. But maybe I don't need to. Lord Jesus, give me eyes to see, and ears to hear.

Peace, peeps. Revolution... in a radical way.
(ps - watch over Carrie as she travels to Illinois and Missouri. She's a sweetie and I love her).