The Crooked Path

Scripture: "For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control."

2 Timothy 1:7

Pics: Penny Hurley

Music: "Abide with Me" Audrey Assad

Message: The Crooked Path

There are times I want to retreat from the onslaught of change that is upon us throughout our lives.

I long for the security, the comfort, the peace, the safety, the softness, the warmth, the easy feeling.

And then I take a deep, deep breath and work to find my courage to step back out into the real and changing world.

There are times I think how I could simplify my life by flowing along the stream, blending in, quieting my thoughts.

And then I feel who I am...

what I have lived,

what I have loved,

what I have lost,

what brings me a sense of peace.

So I keep at this task of being human, seeking to engage with curiosity and compassion.

Living in the grey, the hard, the uncertain, the unknown, the unpromised; with sparks of light and joy accenting my days.

May we all stay the harder course in responding to the needs of ourselves, the community and the world - with love, compassion and sanctuary for all.

"To live a spiritual life we must first find the courage to enter into the desert of our loneliness and to change it by gentle and persistent efforts into a garden of solitude. The movement from loneliness to solitude, however, is the beginning of any spiritual life because it it is the movement from the restless senses to the restful spirit, from the outward-reaching cravings to the inward-reaching search, from the fearful clinging to the fearless play."

"Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked, in which you can walk with love and reverence."

Henry David Thoreau