Where has it all taken you, this perplexing jumble of promises, contradictions and disappointments that life so often presents us? And where are you now being called? Do you still more often feel boxed in by the limitations of your place and circumstances and how they have defined you—and caused you to define yourself? When you look in the mirror, do you still see too much a stale, static existence staring back at you, your term to be served and your condition to be endured?
What you see is who you’ve become. It may be a reflection of where you feel fate has placed you, where you’re supposed to be and, regardless, where you feel resigned to remain. It’s just that I’ve had different experiences, been led to different places. I thought you should know. And even though it is not my invitation to give, I’ve felt compelled to tell my story, to share my understandings. And perhaps you’ve nonetheless heard an invitation in them.
You could see another picture of yourself, an identity changing and moving forward. You could recognize the constraining forces discussed in Choices, but also understand that you still have alternatives, you still have choices. And more, you could hear the quiet voice that encourages you to accept the invitations given and turn new corners. If so, Godspeed and safe travel. Reach. Extend. Push on. You’ll likely step onto a better path. And that is so even if you aren’t ready to acknowledge the One who calls you—even if you won’t. But if you are ready, if you do, better still.
As for me, I could not explore opportunities to realize who I might become or what I might contribute, and neglect to explore the most compelling opportunity of them all: the intriguing possibility of an intimate relationship with God, even an evolving, transcendent identity in Him. What I’ve found is that you can view these and other life questions through either the limited, often distorting window that existential life fashions for us, or the dimly-lit window into the spiritual life, the life with God—or, ideally, as your view is widened, through both. Changes in these two windows are mutually dependent and necessary for our personal growth and insight. As the view and understanding that comes through either becomes clearer, so does your need to better understand and view more clearly the other.
That is, your view of the world and its possibilities are at first distorted by the limits of your temporal identity and circumstances—and so is your ability to sense or see more clearly the invitation to a more spiritual life. The more you work through your choices for personal change and growth in everyday life, and the wiser you become about them, the more open you may also become to hearing the invitations, seeing the opportunities and choices for spiritual growth. And the more you work through your choices for change and growth on your spiritual path, the more you realize those choices are tied inextricably to the existential experiences and relationships in your everyday life. Then one day, there is granted an understanding that there is really only one merged life and reality: your spiritual life working its way to clarity of purpose and identity through everyday life in the world.
And the invitations continue.
First written: November 2006 - January 2007
© Gregory E. Hudson 2007
