There is danger in thinking about theological things while on pilgrimage. The roads grow longer and longer as you try to figure out the ways of both God and man. But what choice do you have? The questions seem to find you whether you want them to or not. It’s almost as if such questions pull at you every time you lift your feet…they make each step harder and harder. Sometimes you want to give up. Sometimes that seems to be the smartest decision. Truth be told, maybe it’s all a lie. Then, thoughts of truth return. Steps grow swifter. Oxygen comes faster. The answer to all questions returns, presence. Something joins you to help you keep pushing. I don’t know what that something is. I just know that it’s there. I just know that there are miles ahead and I will not be walking them alone. The theological things are there…but the answers become nonanswers…or at least truths that are more than conclusions.
Why are people addicted to killing their enemy? I don’t know. I just know that they think it’s their only way out. If I can kill my enemy, then perhaps I might live. They don’t realize that that’s the quickest way to die. How can someone breath by shutting down their lungs? How can someone walk by sitting down? How can someone think by destroying their brain? The entire organism is connected. Decisions matter. We are all connected. We are each other. I am my enemy and my enemy is me. It doesn’t help you breath better by destroying someone else’s lungs. It doesn’t help you walk better by cutting off someone’s legs. Blowing someone’s brains out doesn’t improve your ability to think. How can executing someone improve our ability to live? The death penalty doesn’t make sense.
There is a danger of thinking about theological things while on pilgrimage. Occasionally, you stumble on thoughts that are true. Presence finds you in strange ways…and pushes you ahead.
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