TO BE FREE, TO KNOW PEACE

Someone has to make clear to us that homes are not meant to be lived in -- but only to be moved out from. -- Introduction to "Falling Upward," Fr. Richard Rohr, at p. xvii

Now there is a many-layered statement. I've been thinking on it for a couple of days now, and I asked myself: What is my home? What is my home that I need move out from? Is it my sense of security, my safety-net, my hidey-hole...my self-protection where nothing of God lives, just self...ego-victory self?

I suspect that will be ever with us...it may be that is the backboard we work against in seeking still more spiritual growth. Interestingly, I can tell you in a heartbeat what any one of my friend's "home" is...but mine? Mine is multifaceted, varied, complex...unique, in a word. I crack me up.

Because my friend's home to me is, of course, my interpretation of the picture that person presents to me...another side s/he presents to ten other people for them to interpret as they will.  Making all of us multifaceted...unique. And if each of us is unique, none of us is unique. Like snowflakes, none looks the same but all together they are one and the same snowfall.

To me, the last is the best part of Rohr's statement..."but only to be moved out from." That's the part where we hold our nose and take a leap of faith...out from ourselves, our idea of safety, our known into God's great unknown, the only real safety.

I'm guessing the reason God's safety is so difficult for us to leap toward is it is unknown, unsee-able, unhear-able, untouchable, unprove-able...except within our own self, and what if we are wrong? We're going to look like a bunch of fools. And the ego strikes again.

That's the old home place. The home we must needs move out from...our reliance on our ego-victory reasoning mind. It will never cede to God, God will always cede to it. Therein lies the free will we must choose to turn over to the care of God if we are ever to be free, to know peace.

Thank You.