If Life Was Ideal

Went through some old writings tonight. This writing I found is post-worthy...and fitting for this long-abandoned blog.


(May 18, 2013)

If life was ideal,
We wouldn’t carry the wounds of our fathers
The hurts of our mothers

We would be able to choose
What fades, What stays
We’d place ourselves where we’d like to start
And believe we could pick up where we’d left off without the stains of the past
Sticking so close

Darling, we’d know what to pick
and when
Our hearts our open enough
Or refuse when our hearts were incomplete and broken, or full

In an idea world,
We wouldn’t hurt the ones we love most
Or push away the ones we yearn to be most nearest

We’d be in tune with the state of our beings
And act out just that
We’d be aware of the experiences we are creating for others,
Always

We’d all be able to leave our own bodies
But just for a second
To enter in the pain of another’s
To feel, to fight, to lift, to understand

To love

Our words would have the right timing
Our words would heal and bind up,
Only

In an ideal world,
Actions wouldn’t carry the weight of that
one time
that broke us and is still breaking us


In an ideal world,
We could leave our pasts behind without effort, without hurt
Without labor

Rest

Few men know how to live. We grow up at random, carrying into mature life the merely animal methods and motives which we had as little children. And it does not occur to us that all this must be changed; that much of it must be reversed; that life is the finest of the Fine Arts; that it has to be learned with lifelong patience, and that the years of our pilgrimage are all too short to master it triumphantly. Yet this is what Christianity is for--to teach men the Art of Life. And its whole curriculum lies in one word--"Learn of Me." Unlike most education, this is almost purely personal; it is not to be had from books or lectures or creeds or doctrines. it is a study from the life. Christ never said much in mere words about the Christian Graces. He lived them, He was them. Yet we do not merely copy Him. We learn His art by living with Him, like the old apprentices with their masters. Now we understand it all? Christ's invitation to the wary and heavy-laden is a call to begin life over again upon a new principle--upon His own principle. "What My way of doing things," He says. "Follow Me." Take life as I take it. Be meek and lowly and you will find Rest...

It is only when we see what it was in Him that we can know what the word Rest means. It lies not in emotions, nor in the absence of emotions. It is not a hallowed feeling that comes over us in church. It is not something that the preacher has in his voice. It is not in nature, or in poetry, or in music--though in all these there is soothing. It is the mind at leisure from itself. It is the perfect poise of the inward man to the stress of all outward things; the preparedness against every emergency; the stability of assured convictions; the eternal calm of an invulnerable faith; the repose of a heart set deep in God. It is the mood of the man who says, with Browning, 'God's in His Heaven, all's well with the world.' "

-Henry Drummond

Currently Reading the Free E-Book of the Addresses of Henry Drummond.

You can find it HERE.