American Christian.XIV - We Are Not As Strong As We Think We Are

And with these our hells and our heavens
So few inches apart
We must be awfully small
And not as strong as we think we are

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"I just don't get it," our hero laments.

"Of course not," the leader responds. "What do you want?" Our hero ponders the question and answers.

"I want the truth."

"Well, the truth is something you've never truly known, or truly been able to face in your past condition. But in some cases your unwillingness to see the truth has kept you from it."

Our hero gets indignant.

"What are you talking about; of course I want to see the truth!" The leader speaks to this assertion.

"When things occur and you don't recognize them you freak out and shout, 'This isn't what I asked for!'" Our hero opens his mouth to retort but has no words. He shuts his mouth and listens. "Maybe it is, though; maybe what you don't recognize as truth is."

"Maybe," our hero slowly says as the gears turn in his head, "I ask for things beyond my understanding and comprehension."

"Maybe," agrees the leader. "And isn't God just that? Look up there," the leader says, pointing to the night sky. "I see points of light in the sky and wish to know them; yet I can't even tell which of them are reflecting light and which of them are generating it. And which of them may even be billions of stars in a galactic formation that are so far away they appear to be only one single star?" Our hero continues to listen.

"And how easy it is to see a person as a one-dimensional spirit because we stand at such an emotional distance. We make no attempt to see the myriad parts that go together in the formation of that truly complex being.

"How can I hope to ask for things I do not understand without expecting disappointments so long as I use my own understanding as the unalterable frame of reference rather than as the one to be altered?"

Our hero and the leader look into the sky in wonder. Our hero asks, "So what do I do now?" The leader's answer is one that has spent 31 years in development.

"We can expect only nothing and simply be prepared to be surprised."