Reflections on the Road, Part II

Before my Intro to the Study of Religion class this afternoon, my classmate Adrienne mentioned that the MDiv students were all writing a chapter from their spiritual autobiographies.  I told her that I was doing a bit of the same . . . .

As I said in my last installment,  this all still feels a bit puzzling.  On the one hand, it feels normal; that is, it makes sense to me, it seems like a natural place to be, and a normal thing to be doing.

At the same time, I have noticed lately a real unwillingness to recognize the ripples this is making: schedules, relationships, responsibilities, perspectives all need to be rethought and reconsidered.

Plodding forward as if today was June 12 and not October 12 is foolish.  And yet it feels as if it is the way I’m operating.  These are mistaken assumptions.

The road that I’ve taken to get here is not one that is entirely clear, and the next step isn’t either.  Much has changed since I started this ‘blog, and yet I am still who I am.

In a lot of ways, I think the best course of action is to face each day with great humility and obedience, asking, “What is to be done today?”  Or, to ask the tri-partite questions of obedience “What do I need?  What do others need?  What do the circumstances dictate, apart from the wants and needs of the people involved?”

Easier said than done.  I would really like some large-scale paradigm definitions, but they’re just not coming right now.  Or maybe it’s that the new paradigm is unparadigmatic.