Friday, July 25, 2014

Walk On Through - Only Good Lies Ahead

A friend of mine used to like to quote something she’d heard. It went like this: “Don’t try to outline good; you can’t outline good enough.”

As I grow older, or to put it a better way, as I grow, I learn more the truth behind that saying. I used to love writing New Year’s Eve resolutions. Aim high, I thought, and in my best penmanship those resolutions looked lofty and artistic hanging on my kitchen cupboard door all numbered and neat. By March the whole thing would have gone into the recycling bin. Spontaneity felt shorted; she took up arms and won the battle. 

You see, I can’t say I’ve really finished any pursuit. I chose marriage and a honeymoon over completing my college education. Marriage plus motherhood presented another kind of school and I can say I never gave up on these, although the marriage I’m working on now is with God, our Maker. (The Bible says, “Thy Maker is thy husband.”)  

I’ve written about this before but it still haunts me that I seem to fall short of a successful end, a sense of deserving the lovely retirement I’m enjoying. I don’t think I’m alone in this. Does anyone really think they’ve been totally successful enough to rest on his or her laurels? When you’re watching the years go by you get to wondering how you can finish up with a feeling of having done your best, having won the inner satisfaction of a life lived to the fullest. 

Many have worked their way through severe trials and I am one of them, but I suppose the nagging feeling that we could have done better is part of our advancing years. With me I’m learning not to judge myself for not earning a perfect report card or reaching a grand finish line. Infinity won’t allow that anyway. Life’s school has its little graduations but they’re only resting places to sit a spell and enjoy the scenery without undo self-criticism or self-acclaim. I love the idea the Bible brings out so frequently that it is God’s righteousness, not our own, that carries us onward. 

As for the fear of old age ailments and eventual death, we can avoid facing up to them or we can choose to treat them like the “water” on a desert highway by just smiling because we know the truth about such things. And we can prove it by walking right on through! 

We’re still, and perhaps always will be, like the children of Israel, walking through the desert of human perplexities. We keep yearning for the Promised Land where only divine goodness reigns. Getting glimpses of it we find oases on our way and drink from clear fountains. I feel I’m in an oasis now and I love it but there’s a greater good ahead. I may not move again but my spiritual path goes on and on and I feel a kinship with all my fellows as we explore the way to finding only Good.  


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