"Jesus said to him, 'If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.'"
Matthew 19:21
The Rich Young Man (or RYM, as I refer to him in my journals) and I go way back. I heard the haunting words of Jesus to him, as if for the first time, while on my first retreat at Marymount exactly five years ago. I shook in my sandals. Here Jesus was extending a fabulous invitation to the RYM and it was just too hard for him to sell all his stuff and follow Jesus. I remember praying that I wouldn't do the same thing. I wanted to do what Jesus asked of me, but selling all my possessions seemed a little extreme for me, too. I was so afraid I would go away, sad, like the RYM from Jesus' invitation. Fast forward from that retreat to now and I write from my wonderful treehouse, with considerably fewer possessions (Jesus said I could keep a few things!) Today is the first day of school and the first day of my new life as a Title I tutor at Hawthorne Elementary. I feel, so deeply, that I am following Jesus in this that I could barely sleep and am itching to get to school already! If this is a dream I don't want to wake up. What Jesus asks of us, Jesus puts into our hearts as desire. The RYM may have come around, in fact, I love to think of him coming to his senses and realizing what Jesus was offering him. He got rid of his stuff and met up with Jesus in the next town. To travel with Jesus, we must travel light. Not just fewer possessions, but fewer prejudices, judgments, hang ups about others. You never see the disciples pictured walking along with Jesus with camels carrying their stuff and the mental stuff? Seems like they left it all on the road as they walked. Today, let's all think about how we can travel lighter with Jesus. What can we discard so that our journey is freeing and nourishing? Love from the treehouse, heidi
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