The bible says in Psalms 66 that we are burdened and squeezed through a thin place to eventually be delivered through into a spacious one.
I was meditating about this the other day and began to think about the way a child is born and how they need to go through a tiny channel where much pain and pressure is experienced. The amazing thing is that it is this passage through the narrow path that is actually responsible for stimulating and activating in the new born all that they will require in order to thrive in this new spacious place they come into called life.
I wonder how many times many of us instead of staying present and continuing to go through this natural and organic process within the narrow path instead choose to bypass it altogether and opt for a cesarean section. I also wonder if this is why Jesus said that narrow was the way and few would find it. I wonder also if this is why so few of us find our way into our hearts and instead choose to live from our minds where we are given the false feeling of being in control, like a C-section does, yet like this artificial way of delivery we then need the help of others to be stimulated every time life seems to take what we perceive as a wrong turn? I wonder if this is the way most of us come to faith and this is why for us this spiritual journey so often feels artificial, irrelevant, and the by-product of a shortcut?
Today I am once again traveling through one of these thin places. Each time I pass through this valley of the shadow of death I realize that the purpose of this space is not to hold us back. Instead it is designed to hold back, as a filter does, everything that is responsible for holding our lives back and preventing us from waking up and seeing the truth. I guess this is also why Yeshua told us that if we wanted to find our life we would have to first lose it.
Remember – A branch can’t understand what type it is by looking at the leaves that cover it. This can only be done by understanding which vine it is connected to. If today like me you are being once again shaken take heart that this is being done to further remove the false and lifeless leaves that are unnecessarily covering who you really are.
Have a very Merry Christmas and may 2018 be a real and truth filled year for you and those you love!
-pablo-
