JUST DON'T GIVE IT A HOME IN WHICH TO REIGN

I once had a dream that I was given a branch of a tree with the bark still on it, all dirty, still sticky with sap, and I was told, "This is the Word." I understood that I needed to clean that branch up. I knew that I needed special tools to do the cleaning, to strip the bark, wash the muck and mire off, drain the last bit of sap out.

So I got me a big knife, stripped that bark off, scrubbed the branch in a river nearby, and dug into the sap source and emptied it out. All done. Not five minutes later, there was the branch with the bark still on it, all dirty, still sticky with sap. So I forgot about it, forgot about the dream.

Then began my life's journey...searching for the right Word, the Word to make me alright and all right. I found a church which had the right message for me, and I joined. Didn't last long. I found new authors, new lecturers all with the same good message and  talked a lot about them. Didn't do much of it, but I did talk. I toyed with Buddhism which had the same good message and I told others about it. Same thing. I read, I journaled, I meditated, I went on retreats, attended lectures, prayed, cried, pleaded...still the same old me.

One day in a blinding flash of the obvious I knew that there were never going to be enough "out theres" in this world to make me feel alright. And I remembered my dream of the branch.  I realized it did not need outside cleaning. It already was the Word. And the Word was me. And all I needed...all the branch needed...we already had within.

I could not be cleaned on the outside and be fit...it had to start within. I had to give me over...to do good works, be accountable, live for a higher purpose than I'd naturally chose.

I knew of myself I'd not be able to do any selfless thing without direction. I found the Sermon on the Mount fit me best because it is so simple...I read "If someone slaps you upside your head, turn the other cheek," and I didn't have to wonder what that meant. I knew it meant that no matter what happens in my eyeballs' world, there is a deeper God-meaning. My need is to be willing to turn the other cheek, repeatedly, if that is the path to the deeper God-meaning in my life.

I came to understand that all the Sermon directs us to do is what is within us right now...do good works, give over, be accountable, live for a higher purpose than we'd naturally chose. And really that is the simple message of all the many other things I tried. The Sermon is just no-questions-asked clearer to me.

The Sermon helped me to realize that resisting evil is nurturing evil. Same goes with resisting our self-propelled ego. The more we try not to...anything...the more it is in our head, dictating our thoughts. Once we resist it, it attaches and clings...like Velcro.

We resist not ego by not giving it our thoughts, by not giving it a home in which to reign...same with evil. Resist not evil and be free.

Thank You.