The Trackless Path

I am nothing. And I never thought  It would sound so sweet. Nothing now but to lay it down, Nothing now but to lay it down. How many times can a man die? A few, it seems.  And the master wields the knife, The master wields the knife. How many times can this man die? Again it seems.  Again it seems. And the master wields the knife, Not long now.  Oh, not long now. But the master wields the knife. I...

I have always had a hard time sticking to things. And yet I have published here  Over 200 days straight. Grateful. And I am holding my feet to the fire When it comes to the story I am working on: One project - one thing at a time. And the goal is to finish by the end of the quarter: One more month. And I keep at it day after day. Yet I am tempted to work on other things. But I must finish one thin...

I lay down my life. But what does that mean? I don’t know.  Or perhaps I do. That I let go of all that I had hoped…again… Which is all that He has promised, At least my hope of receiving it in this world. And in that, He says, there is hope That it will surely come  When I am gone. What a surprise? And I feel it in my chest. The promise that I haven’t long. And so I baby this old frame.  I treat i...

Put the knife away, I say. Put the knife away. Go back home  And humbly pray For faith to win the day. There is no battle left to win No struggle yet untried Except the battle in man’s heart To grapple with the lie, The lie that we inherited From fathers brave and true, Fathers who believed that they Could make the choice for you, Who hoped that if they gave their lives That they could make us fre...

For those who beat their swords into plowshares, There is no need for Christ to appear in the sky. He has already appeared within their heart. Their thousand years of peace Have already begun.

I have found that most of the time  People don’t know what they are angry about. For that reason, it is better not to be angry. It is better to choose peace. Anger leads to war And destruction. And there are few Who do not choose war When the fires of rhetoric are kindled  And billowed by the machine. And anyone who has harbored anger is at risk No matter how righteous their cause appears. You don...

I don’t know what to write about today. Perhaps I could write about the mountains. There is no good or bad there, just beauty. And that, it seems, is good. Perhaps that is why people have written about nature. In nature, there is a rest for the human mind. It is a place where we can forget  About our endless pursuit of goodness And about our inability to find it. In nature, in beauty, there is mer...

When it comes to diet I am not a purist. But there is still a part of me  That believes that I should be, That I should remain unspotted  From all that defiles the belly. And to be honest, I really wonder if that part of me is right. I wonder if I would be healthier if I could eat “right” 100% of the time. But it can also be confusing. For one thing, I haven’t always had the means to eat just righ...

I believe that I have found the pavilion that covereth His hiding place. Or at least, I have found a few of the principles that define that place.   Not surprisingly, it lies on the outskirts of the culture. Surprisingly, it moves and you must move with it. But it is real. I have felt the shade of its sheltering canopy. And I have also felt that shade move in an instant And known that it was time...

Scripture is the Word of God. And God speaks to those that listen. Few listen, but those who do  Have heard no less than scripture. They have heard the very Word of God. And that Word is no less binding upon them Than what we have canonized as scripture, Perhaps more binding, for it is God’s very word to them. It is personal.  And it is incumbent upon them to heed and to obey. And if they obey God...

It seems that the only true refuge is in peace itself. We can choose to be at peace with what is. And that kind of living, peaceful living, I think, is the answer.

I let go of the thing to which I cannot cling and properly cherish in the finite moment. And in so doing I trust that it is sealed to me by the forsaking. This is the key by which love binds all things to itself. And so the meek inherit the earth, Not by means, nor by conquest, But by letting go.

Now and then I scheme, I plan, I project. My mind goes off in this direction or that. It's a natural impulse. But action is better. Action is the faith part of it. When I plan, I show that I don't fully trust the unseen benevolent hand To go before my face and prepare the way.

I am leery of any strategy that requires no repentance. If you think that you are getting providence on your side by scheming better, By being more shrewd, By working harder, By learning skills, Then it is possible, perhaps likely, that you are deceived. Remember that God rains upon the just and the unjust. And so, receiving a blessing from God Does not show that you serve him. And who knows but w...

This is the beggar's bowl The weekly edition of my podcast Wherein I highlight one economic principle of the new life And beg for spare change. I've thought about this for years But it may be an idea whose time has come. Here it is: What if the goal was not to get ahead Instead, what if we tried for zero? Here's what I mean. Transportation: the second largest expense for modern familie...

If you desire a house that they cannot take away, try this: Get rid of all you do not use and cherish. And get a good feeling for your base. For me, it is a mat on the floor And a backpack, Not the hiking kind, Just big enough to fit my life inside. Then live as if you might just leave tomorrow. That kind of living is just like normal living But with less attachment. And then wait upon the voice t...

There is another way of looking at the problem of the poor, or any problem really. Most of us believe that we must do something. And there is a place for that. But often, the appropriate response is to do nothing, To get out of the way as people grapple with their problems. I will use the poor to illustrate, and housing. We get in the way of simple housing. But we don't have to. A poor person...

An idea for the Real-Estate investor: Why not, now and then shed it all To the benefit of the simple And start again. Several times, I have seen an ad. The investor in the ad Boasts of how The Discovery Channel Challenged him to remake his fortune In a new city with no credit, no contacts, no money, no lifelines. They gave him 90 days. Or was it 30? I don't remember. And he did it. Isn't t...

The furniture belongs to the house. Remember that. It does not belong to you. Isn't that a load off your mind? So much less to carry when it's time to go. Or you can lug it along I suppose. But I love to leave with little more than myself And trust that the things I need will come.

How is it that the first will be last and the last shall be first? Is it a universal principle? And to what does it apply? I think I see an application in the stories that we tell.

Words matter. They effect the way we think of things, the way we feel about things. So how might it change the way we think and feel, were we to call the placebo effect a miracle.

This is the Beggar's Bowl, The weekly edition of my podcast Wherein I highlight one financial principle of the new life And beg for spare change. This week I do not ask for 50 cents. I ask that if you've been blessed by the things I share, That you consider sharing a post, a video, a podcast, With someone close to you. The ideas that I am sharing are important But I cannot do this work alo...

I did not write today's post. It was written by a friend of mine who lives in Arizona. It seems like a fitting ending to the last little series. I hope that the last few posts have not been too somber for you. I cannot say that I have any big solutions to the problems that I see. I don't think that way. But I have found that God leads me to broken people, or leads them to me, as the case m...

There's another reason we don't consider reasonable housing options. We don't want to see it. But we will. We have pushed back the ugly, But the ugly is coming for us.

Why is it not ok For someone to live in a storage unit? Why do municipalities fight tiny homes? I've seen 4 tiny apartments made out of a storage container. Each unit was roughly eight feet by ten feet, With a shared porta potty And a spigot for water - The perfect solution for someone Desiring to rise from the street Or simply live within their means. I have visited historic sites: Cabins rai...