Stiles and Honeysuckle

"Gratitude is the Gateway to the Heart of God" The Grateful Pa

Imagine a 11 year old boy is in a pasture, having arrived there by the rambling process of exploring on a Sunday afternoon in June, and startled that retracing his steps--if memory could indeed find a way to retrace them--would take hours, and it is almost dinnertime. His house is in clear sight in the distance, but the fence between is miles long, lined with several carefully placed strands of charged electric fence designed to keep farm creatures both large and small safely inside. The trees and bushes along the fence, and the rise and fall of the fields, make it impossible to determine which direction to go. Realizing his careless ambition got him in a jamb, the boy stops to pray for assistance, then begins trudging along the fence. First in one direction for 100 feet, then back the other way for a while. Head down, dejected, he stops to decide once and for all which way to go, and commits fully to it, knowing not where the fence will lead or how long it will take to get to a point of safe passage.

There is hesitation at first, one cautious step, then another, each childish step gradually becoming more firm in resolve to the direction chosen. "After all," he thinks, "there is no hope in indecision." Thus committed, the trudge becomes a walk, and with dejection fading he notices fully-bloomed honeysuckle exploding along the fence-row . Stopping to smell it, the boy--as boys are prone to do--pulls the center stem from the blossom and find what smells like honey there. And behold! It indeed does taste delightfully like honey! Even more inspired now, the walking becomes more purposeful, almost lighthearted, and after a few hundred feet, just over the rise of a hill is a carefully constructed stile crossing the fence. Coming to it, the boy finds himself only 100 feet from his front door. climbing to the top, he stops to revel in the delight of a few more blossoms of honeysuckle, and walks home to dinner with new resolve in his heart, fresh courage in his soul, and inspiration for future adventures.

Rambling along in life's pursuits--without consulting the Divine--the path unfolds, and the limits of the pasture are discovered--those limits often placed on the ability, power and benevolence of the Almighty. The fence is the blockades built in the mind and heart--those preconceived notions of what is or is not possible. Upon arriving at the limits of imagination, intellect, and physical ability, one begins to realize that there must be something more, and to find it a decision must be made. Before making that decision, prayer is necessary, and then the testing of the ground. First in one direction then the other, then the choice must be made. In the making of it--in the using of available resources to act with purpose--Divine inspiration becomes enlivened within--that Divine inspiration breathed carefully into each soul at birth. When so inspired,hope is born, and the manifest goodness of our Magnificent Creator is discovered exploding all around. Before long a stile comes into view--that stile of gratitude that when actively engaged empowers faith, and allows each individual to get past self-inflicted fences and come to a harmonious alignment with the Heart of God, unlocking the passion, potential, and purpose within, and in doing so inspiring others to do the same. And you never know, there just may be some honeysuckle along the way.

Let each of us, in gratitude, pray with humility, choose with integrity, and walk forward in certain anticipation that the The Almighty will intercede on our behalf, because He already has.

"Inspired People Inspire People, And You Were Made To Be Inspired!"

The Grateful Pa