How often do people really understand what Jesus is saying at the moment he says it? The people who live with him 24/7 don't get the gist of his teachings and sayings. They come back and ask for clarification. They edit out the parts they don't like or can't comprehend of just won't fit in their heads. What does he mean when he says "enter through the narrow gate." ? I always thought, and still do to a certain extent, that he was only referring to getting into heaven. Salvation. That's the gate, the ultimate gate. But he also refers to a path. So there is a narrow gate, and a narrow way. Presumably, you can't get onto the narrow way unless you first pass through the narrow gate. Destruction has a broad gate and a broad way. Life has a narrow gate and a narrow way. There is destruction and Destruction. There is life and Life. This can't mean only salvation and damnation because there is a way...a path...a road. There is movement. Once you pass through the narrow way, something else is happening. Once you pass through the broad way something else is happening. I've come to see that the narrow way doesn't get broader once you're through the gate, it gets narrower. There is a point when the narrow way gets so narrow, you can't keep carrying the things you brought along for the journey. The things you would never leave home without; the things that just make sense to all of us. He can't be asking me to leave my family behind...oops, yeah he says that. He can't be asking me to leave all my provisions behind and live like a sparrow...oops, yeah he says that too. He can't be asking me to leave my sense of justice behind and let him bring justice to all the people who've hurt me...yeah, that one too. My health care and my home? My retirement and my toiletries? My self image and my reputation? Yes, yes, and yes. The narrow way gets very narrow. It gets so narrow that it will come to a point where nothing will fit through it. Like a fissure in mountain pass. Nothing is going through there but me and Him. It is a very tight squeeze. It hurts. It scrapes away everything; every whiff of self righteousness or self sufficiency gets scrubbed off our skin. It is a very narrow way. Most people stop short of this place. I have to have my marriage work out. I have to have my children go right. I have to have my health. But you don't. You can keep them if you want, but you can't keep them and get through the very narrow way. And you can't have Life while you're living, you can only have life. Interestingly enough, you'll be shoved through the very narrow way one day - the day when death insists upon taking away all the baggage you carried on the narrow narrow way. You will get Life then. But you can have it now. If you want it you can choose it. The Spirit of Christ promises to take you there and through if you ask him. Just be warned; the narrow way is in the Valley of the Shadow of Death. Don't ask him if you don't want to go there. But he is very persuasive. And very beautiful. Maybe ask instead for a view of Jesus that is accurate. He is the only thing beautiful enough to convince me to go into that dark place. He is that wonderful. He is The Life.
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