Pathways to God-Intro
Gregg’s Reflection
Before becoming a Christian in my late 20’s, I did a tour of world religions seeking a path to God. I found the Bible difficult to read and understand. I began to read the Koran, but got turned off when I learned that the Prophet Mohammed countenanced the idea of conversion by sword. That just seemed wrong.
I did cursory looks at the Eastern spirituality of Hinduism and Buddhism, but was not drawn. Then, I stumbled upon the Carlos Castenada’s book, The Teachings of Don Juan, exploring the spirituality of the indigenous people of the Desert Southwest and Mexico.
When I read this passage, I was immediately drawn. His teacher, Don Juan told him this,
The path of knowledge is not easy. The path of the warrior is one of introspection and self-growth, but it is also one of learning what to value. The only path worth following is the path with a heart. It is the one that allows you to live fully. The others will lead to suffering and emptiness.
I knew the task before me, to find the Path with a Heart. Seeking God eventually led me to be baptized by a charismatic Lutheran Pastor, Vernon Luckey, and to commit to a spiritual journey, to find that Path.
The Charismatic Movement was flourishing when I was baptized. While I was never drawn to speaking in tongues, or the other ‘gifts of the Spirit,’ I was moved to meet people seeking a direct experience of Spirit and of God. The Spirit had touched me in our travels out West, when God revealed Godself in the mountains and canyons where I felt so small, and the forces of nature so powerful.
I had a much harder time experiencing Spirit in Lutheran Worship, where tradition had us listening to pipe organ renditions of songs that never resonated with my soul. I felt some sense of calling in my life, but my pastors never helped me see that I could live out my calling in my work.
So, about the time I was baptized, we had a vision to walk away from the business at age 45, to pursue something more meaningful. I spent a weekend each fall with a small group of Christian businessmen, exploring variations of the question: What will you do with the rest of your life. And, I kept searching for the path, not realizing I was already on it.
We sold the business and walked away when I was 48. We bought land in Colorado, and built our off grid log home. One day, standing on this mountain, God gave me my calling, to bring all I had learned of leadership in 25 years in the business and use it to equip a next generation of leaders for the Kingdom.
For the last 25 years, I have lived out that Path with a Heart, and it has been the most meaningful work of my life, walking the Path and living fully, as Don Juan promised. At the end of his life, St Francis told his followers, “I have done what was mine to do, now may God show you yours.”
Has God revealed what is yours to do? Come along as we explore Pathways to God, and lean into the Path with a Heart, that you might take up this warrior’s journey. Blessings.
Journaling Prompts
My Spiritual Director tells me that our calling is the intersection of our deepest desires and the world’s greatest need. Contemplate what might be your deepest desires, and the needs you are passionate about. Often, our deepest wounds become our deepest passions. How might that help you find the Path? Have you discerned your spiritual gifts? They are a great indicator of the direction of your Path. What is yours to do?
Scripture
What does your God require of you? Only to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul.
Deuteronomy 10:12
There are those who rebel against the light, who are not acquainted with its ways, and do not stay in its paths.
Job 23:13
Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.
Psalm 119:105
Incline your ear and hear my words, and apply your mind to my teaching; for it will be pleasant if you keep them within you, if all of them are ready on your lips, so that your trust may be in the Lord.
Proverbs 22:17-19
You will know salvation through the mystery of forgiveness.
Luke 2:77
Rejoice always, praying without ceasing.
1 Thessalonians 5:16.
But, as for you, man of God, pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness.
1 Timothy 6:11
As for those who are rich, command them not to be haughty, or to set their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but rather in God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous and ready to share, thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that is really life.
1 Timothy 6:17-19
For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer.
1 Peter 3:12-13
Ancient Writings
The Logos of God has become human so that you might learn from a human being how a human being may become divine.
Clement of Alexandria
If the soul had known God as perfectly as do the angels, it would never have entered the body. And if the soul could have known God without the world, the world would never have been created.
The world was made for the soul's sake that the soul's eye might be practiced and strengthened to bear the divine light... The soul's eye could not bear this light unless it were steadied by matter, supported by likenesses, and so led up to the divine and accustomed to it.
Meister Eckhart
Seek grace not instruction, desire not understanding, seek the groaning of prayer over diligent reading, seek the spouse more than the teacher, seek God not man, darkness not clarity, not light but the fire itself.
Bonaventure, Cousins, The Soul’s Journey to God, p. 6,7
When we are fallen because of frailty or blindness, then our gracious Lord inspires us, stirs and calls and then He wills that we see our wretchedness and humbly let it be acknowledged. But He does not wish us to remain thus, nor does He will that we busy ourselves greatly about accusing ourselves, nor does He will that we busy ourselves greatly about accusing ourselves, nor does He will that we be full of misery about ourselves; for He wills that we quickly attend to Him; for He stands all alone and waits for us constantly, sorrowing and mourning until we come, and hastens to take us to for Himself; for we are His joy and His delight, and He is our care and our cure and our life.
The Complete Julian of Norwich p. 357.
Prayer is a right understanding of that fullness of joy that is to come, along with a true yearning and certain trust. In prayer, the lacking of our bliss naturally makes us yearn; true understanding and love graciously makes us trust. And thus, by nature do we yearn, and by grace do we trust.
Julian of Norwich, Complete Julian, Fr John-Julian, p. 199
The enjoyment of God is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied. Fathers and mothers, husbands, wives, or children, or the company of earthly friends are but shadows, but enjoyment of God is the substance. These are but scattered beams, but God is the sun. These are but streams, but God is the fountain. These are but drops, but God is the ocean.
Jonathan Edwards
Delve deeply into the Jesus Prayer...It will draw you together, giving you a sense of strength in the Lord, and will result in your being with Him constantly whether alone or with other people, when you do work and when you read and pray.
St. Theophane the Recluse
Modern Writings
The path of knowledge is not easy. The path of the warrior is one of introspection and self-growth, but it is also one of learning what to value. The only path worth following is the path with a heart. It is the one that allows you to live fully. The others will lead to suffering and emptiness.
Don, Juan, Carlos Castaneda, The Teachings of Don Juan, A Yaqui Way of Knowledge. The only journeys worth pursuing are those that resonate deeply with one's inner self.
The spiritual journey is a process of dismantling the monumental illusion that God is distant or absent.
Thomas Keating, Fruits & Gifts of Spirit, p. 1
In the heart of a disciple, there is a desire, and a settled intent. The disciple of Christ desires above all else to be like Him. The disciple is one who, intent on becoming Christ-like, and so dwelling in his ‘faith & practice,’ systematically and progressively rearranges his affairs to that end.
Dallas Willard, The Spirit of the Disciplines
Clinging to what you know is the path to an unlived life. Cultivate a beginner’s mind, walk straight into your not-knowing.
Parker Palmer, On the Brink of Everything
So what does it really mean to follow Jesus? I believe we are invited to gaze upon the image of the crucified Jesus to soften our hearts toward all suffering, to help us see how we ourselves have been “bitten” by hatred and violence, and to know that God’s heart has always been softened toward us.
In turning our gaze to this divine truth, we gain compassion toward ourselves and all others who suffer. It largely happens on the psychic and unconscious level, but that is exactly where all of our hurts and our will to violence lie. A transformative religion must touch us at this primitive, brainstem level, or it is not transformative at all.
Richard Rohr, CAC Daily Devotion, 12/6/20
Immediate, unmediated contact with the moment is the clearest path to divine union; Naked, undefended, and nondual presence has the best chance of encountering the Divine Presence.
Richard Rohr, Naked Now, p. 105
God is the one who seduces me out of my unworthiness.
Richard Rohr, Yes, and, p. 99
The soul is where God works compassion, Meister Eckhart. We might turn this around to say we do not truly have a soul until we are instruments of divine compassion. Compassion is the fullness of being human. It is proof we have a soul.
Matthew Fox, Christian Mystics, p. 142
In Bonaventure’s view only one who is on a journey to God can really know God; faith seeks understanding through the path of love.
Ilia Delio, Christ in Evolution, p. 11
In prayer we eventually come face-to-face with the fundamental question of life. How can we find him who fills all things yet evades our grasp? How can we find our way to God?
James Finley, Merton’s Palace of Nowhere, p. xvii
Soul is the supreme fruit of our earthly sojourn, forged in the refiner’s fire of our conscious labor and intentional suffering.
Cynthia Bourgeault, Eye of the Heart, p. 58
Our human life is a journey home. We come from God and it is to God that we will one day return. To be a pilgrim is to walk gently on the earth. It is to carry with you only what you need. A pilgrim is a guest in a sacred place. We visit here, leave nothing but prayers and works of kindness and take nothing with us except what has touched our hearts. This road of life which leads us home to God is a lovely journey. It is a scenic tour. It is also a great trial. This road has thieves and murderers and there are days when the sun never shines and you sleep in the rain and walk in the mud.
Justin Coutts, In Search of a New Eden, 8/22/21
Self-denial of which Jesus spoke is borne of love, love of God, love of others, and love, in the healthiest sense, of self. It is saying no to needing our own way (now!) to saying yes to God’s way and the interests of others. The fruit is life and peace.
Renovare Weekly Digest 2 /3-7