Guaranteed Joy

When I was young, I languished over joy's elusiveness. I sought it on my own terms. I bought it from my own resources. I thought about it with my deluded conceit.

There was no true joy.

All that I can produce was a copy. I lived with a duplicate until I found the source in the person of Christ. Like a tree planted by the streams, my roots have anchored deep on God's abiding word. The seasons come and go yet I hold: I am being sheltered from each and every blight.

I thought joy was to be found when one finds a woman to marry. Not so. Another person in one's life merely highlights one's hidden poverty. If it were not for the life-altering offer of Christ's grace in my life and marriage, I would have gone the drifter's way.

I now experience the measure of joy daily through my converse with Manel. I have been given a life-long companion to grasp the truth that my marriage is a mere gift. I either subscribe to the jargon that man and wife are mere affectionate symbiotic commodities or I sign up to the primary design that this one-flesh union is a grace-developed picture of Christ's love for His people.

When I get a kiss from her, I know by intuitive theology that a miracle is taking place. True love only happens because God loved us first.

This is joy guaranteed to its highest exponent. Soli Deo Gloria!

Two Shoes

I am a walker.

I love to navigate through fields, streets, and more especially the road-less traveled.

I do not keep tabs of mileage but I might have circled the globe intuitively. I wear all sorts of shoes. At my trek to the ball drop of NYC in 2013, the steady Doc Martens kept me glued well for hours. I stand on my Imperial wingtips forever but the resiliency of the plain Moab Merrell defines comfort on a raised pedestal. And thus, I keep walking.

I find so much walking in the Bible. As I go through the narrative of faith, I see the metaphor of journey prevailing. At the center of these steps is the incredible witness of the Psalmist introducing life, using two steps. The common steps lead outwardly. The other step strides inside.

Life derives from within. Like a tree that find its nourished strength from deepened roots within, so goes our derivative. 

There are two kinds of shoes. Those worn out by the rugged confusion of our fallen world, and those kept taut by a good path. We wear these shoes. We get to pick which shoes to wear, and what path to take.

There is an invitation to consider the journey that leads to a most wonderful discovery: a place not found in our walls. The apt shoes to wear are the ones provided by the One who walked and demonstrated where we ought to go. He traveled from the City of God, to the city of men to show us the way.

My daughter gave me a pair of Cole Haans. I performed an experiment: I nurtured each shoe with divergent attention. I cared for the left shoe with utmost attention. I left the other one unattended. At some point, the appearance of distress on one and the loveliness on the other could not be hidden. The intentional path has determined their character.

No one chooses our route for us. We get to choose Christ's intentional care or enter into a decaying default.

New Car

My family roots led me to a deep awareness about cars. My great grandparents were horse traders. Small wonder, my affections towards metal steeds seem psychotic. I gave them names: Brutus, Pandora, Black Stallion ... to name a few.

I did a recent inventory of units I've herded in my garage and it was delightfully ginormous. Through the journeys the cars taught me well. A man must be careful not to steal their identity. Some men have lost their hearts thinking that their Porsche defines them. When this happens, a subversive oil change takes place: gladness dissipates as the poor car assumes the awkward posture of reversed ownership. The man is comically owned by the car.

I fall prey to this syndrome because I lust after cars: My first sports car had me with a tight leash. The classic Mustang forced me to fake my identity. My Audi affected my gait ... ad infinitum. 

By grace, I stumbled upon a firewall. I was introduced to a simple being: a used 2000 Honda Civic. His radical simplicity pulled my roots to where they ought to be.

I fondly refer to him as Green Cross. I drive him everyday. He never attempts to own me. Neither do I. I just drive him with an ever-increasing delight towards becoming a new person each driving day.

It is ironic: he is 16 years old but he takes me to treks of newness each passing day. Happy New Consciousness.