Morning meditation - Moving into the unknown is what a spiritual life is all about

Everyone must find their own way. We are encouraged to copy others because it gives them power and control over us. It also makes things seem easier for ourselves because we can do less work, expend less effort, but in the end we are dissatisfied with being a copy rather than the original that we are created to become.

Other ways give us clues, ideas, hints, guidance, hope, inspiration, support, validation, but even if we pirate and plagerize we still must make these other ways our own, bring them into our own application.

I remember being told as a child that I should try to be like Jesus, but then as I grew older, a very wise person told me, "You are not Jesus, you are David, and you will fail if you try to be Jesus. God didn't create you to be Jesus, God created you to be David, and your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to become the best David that God created you to be." I remember thinking to myself, when I was told this, "That's right! That feels right to me."

Now, I love Jesus. I have learned a lot from Him. I admire Him, and I am grateful to Him, but I am not Him, and I know that God does not want me to be Him, and I don't think Jesus would want me to be Him either. They both want me to be David, the best David I can be.

So why did the representatives of the Roman Catholic Church teach me that I have to be like Jesus?

Because, when I ask the next question, which is "What is Jesus like, and what do I have to do to be like Him?", they have the answers. They get to tell me what to do. What a scam. I would have been had. I was almost lost, but I was found when I was told this way of thinking was wrong. I was given a much harder teaching, and that is, that I had to find my own way, blaze my own trail, listen to my heart for what God was whispering for me to do with my life.

This is a difficult path. It is lonely. It is frightening at times. It takes courage. People, powerful people, often do not approve. It is easy to fall back on tradition, stock answers, support of the powerful for protection, and yet that is often the path to stagnation and slow death. Moving forward toward the light of the transcendent, listening as best we can for the will of God, for the way of the Tao, is the best hope. Moving into the unknown, blazing our own path, charting our own course, figuring out, with the help of others, how it is best for me to become the person God created me to become is what the spiritual life is all about.