Stay Interested In Your Journey

One thing I learned from Eat, Pray, Love (2010) is that we must, as much as possible, remain interested in our very intrinsic journeys to ourselves.

No matter how much trouble it presents for you, stay interested enough in your journey until you get right through to the other side.

This is as much about going with our instincts as anything else. This is about an outcome; where we’re able to trust our instincts with confidence.

Being Polite and Gentle With Ourselves

And as we learn things about ourselves along our journeys we’ll necessarily need to be very polite with ourselves in actually learning that new thing. Gentleness issued over the self, particularly in difficult times, is the grace and wisdom of God. It’s a necessary allowance.

Journeys very often commence in ruination:

“Ruin is a gift... ruin is the road to transformation.”

~Eat, Pray, Love (2010).

Here we see that the event that pushes us over the chasm, making life hopeless for a time, is what becomes the envelope to the making of us.

Another Outcome – the Ability to Do Nothing

As a spiritual goal, there is the sweetness of doing nothing. For many, this is an impossible task. Still, again, this journey to the centre of self is the journey to space—to the attraction of a state of mind where a vacuum exists so worry can be evacuated and where love is allowed to rush into the emptied space like a torrent. There is where peace is at.

More Peace, More Power

Love for the self is self-forgiveness. It releases condemnation for past sin, for it accepts what God says. God has forgiven already. It’s a God-issued peace we’re after and that’s exactly what God is willing for us. It is we that stands between.

Hope is what drives the troubled but determined soul forward. It sees something better but it sees dimly—still, it goes forward anyway. And hope is vindicated for the faith it possesses.

We’re forgiven for feeling too much. No wonder people are driven to drink and drug. But God and his balance for life are the best anaesthetics; they resolve the pain once and for all. That’s where peace is. We can breathe again.

Be Interested – Don’t Give In

Winston Churchill was famous for saying, “If you’re going through hell, keep going,” as if to say, we really must get out the other side.

Journeys are like that. It’s only when we’ve reached the other side that we feel truly thankful for them.

Despite what you might be feeling, stay interested in your life. Do your disciplines and all will go well with you.

© 2010 S. J. Wickham.