The Road

I'm feeling joyful.

The sun is high. The sky is blue. There's a breeze moving new air into my lungs, and my life. I feel complete, and content.

I have always scorned those who would say things about the ways in which God can suddenly change everything in a life. For instance, the idea that some massive shift occurs in a person when he or she accepts Christ. I've argued that there is no massive shift--at least not an immediate behavioral shift. Humility and love and obedience--these are things that take time. I have said that there's no change, no shift, no cosmic equation for salvation. And yet, I'm beginning to question that wisdom.

Maybe it's not a cosmic shift. Maybe it's less mystical, but just as real. A sort of gargantuan revelation. An opening of the mind to an alternate reality. An awakening. A falling away of the scales over one's eyes. A new type of seeing.

I feel that God has done that for me with regards to Love. Not that I now see everything there is to see of Love. But that I see it in a different way than I did a week ago, or five days ago, even. My perception is different. My behavior could still be lousy, but now I'll know that I'm being unacceptably lousy.

This is certainly an interesting road.