Thick and Thin

On a recent hike on the Appalachian trail we came to a section of the trail that goes through the Great Swamp.

I have been thinking about this picture for a while and have thought about just how much it can reflect our own life journey.

No matter how high and dense life can become we must keep going. But what path do we choose?

Sometimes those who came before us lay out the path for us, but still many head into the thicket.

They try to make their own way in the thicket, not realizing that the thicket just brings suffering and hardship.

The road to Truth has been laid out before us.

The thickets surround the Truth and leads nowhere.

Above all we still have to carry on.

Yes, there might be a load on your back, created by your very own thicket adventure, but you still have to carry on.

Experiment

Have you ever analyzed your life and wondered if it was all meant to be?

Sometimes our hardships make us question just what it all means.  It is so easy to lose focus especially when although you are doing everything "right", things don't seem to go right for you.  The story of Job is a perfect example of that. 

This has happened to me several times in my life and I have been quickly to blame, but now I know better, and just wait.

In an experiment, there are dependent and independent variables to determine cause and effect.

The independent variables are the variables that are changed by the experimenter. The experimenter then checks the effects the independent variable has on the dependent variable.

We have a few known variables that will cause some known effects in our lives like drugs, alcohol etc... but those are not in everyone's lives.

How will the dependent variable, which is you, be affected and in the end measured?

This is the ultimate question that many ask themselves, "What is the end result of my life? What is the purpose of my life?"

Although there are variables that can not be controlled, there are a few that can.

This is the importance of Faith.  With faith you have an understanding that God has a plan for us.

An example of people who don't have faith in the plan, are of people who have no stability in their life due to their own actions.

The inconsistencies of the self imposed variables in their lives coupled with the always unknowing and ever changing variables that life itself has a way of giving them, leads to a very unstable life.

? + ? =  more ???

This also applies to the person or persons who know that certain variables in their lives will always have undesirable causes and effects in their lives.  Should these people complain? Probably not.  Do some people get used the effects the variables in their lives brings them?  Is that their way of getting some type of hold on the uncertainty?

( Drama + ? ) + Drama = Drama 

What about the variables that people consider "normal?"  This is another problem.  What is normal?

I think that normal has been identified by the wisdom of those that came before us, but that the interpretation of that "normal" has twisted some of its normalcy.

Sometimes the variables given to us at birth are not the one's we want, and so throughout our life we fight them, or use them in a way that is not "normal."  And so, the non-acceptance of those variables and how they fit the plan, continues our hardships.

Do you have Faith in the plan?

I think that part of the plan is to have one variable, which is constant.  Faith.

Let go, of letting it go

I had a dream that you and I were hiking up a mountain.

Our packs were heavy because we picked up so many things we thought we would need for this trip.

I decided to slowly let stuff out of my pack and I made progress, but when I looked to my side you were not there.

I noticed that you were still struggling.  I yelled to you, "Let some stuff out of your pack, we are almost there!"

But you refused.

I came back to you to help you, but the load was too heavy for both of us.

I begged and pleaded with you to drop some of your stuff, but you refused.

As night approached, I realized that we would both succumb to the weight of your pack. I had to leave if we wanted a chance for either of us to survive.

I left you there on your knees, and as I approached the summit I too fell, but because my pack was lighter and there were other people with lighter packs on the same trail who helped me, I could continue.

As I climbed, I looked back. I saw you finally decide to remove some of your baggage and made some progress, but when I looked back again later I saw you had picked up some more things, basically the same things, but in a different color.

When I finally saw the summit, I knew I could probably make it to the top by the time the cold night consumed me.  I looked back to you and once again asked you to relieve your burden so you could climb.  I pleaded with you. But you still refused. You fell again under the crushing weight you still chose to carry.  But it seems that the old conveniences you think you need are the very things that keep you on your knees.

I have to go on my friend, I am being called from the top.

You are the only one that can let go of those things you think you need.

Others who say they are helping are just adding more stuff to your pack.

Good luck my friend. I have to move on.