We are told to let go
but we don’t know how
or of what.
Is it something in my hands
or something metaphorically in my head
like a defective set of morals?
Is it my familiar boundaries of safety that separate one group from another?
Is it intellectual like an idea
or physical like a habit?
Is it a misconception or mis-allegiance?
we are told to surrender,
but surrender what
and to who?
Is it money
or arms
or property
or belongings?
And, when I lay them down who picks them up?
Is it my freedom
or is it my suitcase of perception?
Perhaps we need a new language,
a language of awareness.
Perhaps in-the-name-of-Jesus
is not a hall pass
because we are not in a building.
Perhaps it’s a mindset
of behaving differently
because we see things differently;
a perspective,
an awareness of what is
rather than what is accepted.
Perhaps it’s something we inhabit
like a new wineskin
where we realize that we cannot live without breathing,
that we cannot understand our way into life.
We have to actually be there and, breathe.
When we quit longing for the sun and accept the moon,
we are turning our own understanding into idols
and our efforts become the-thing of our understanding
rather than the sunset.
The way of the spirit cannot be learned.
It has to be walked.