New Yoke

Put simply, you only have room for one primary “yes.”

You can not serve two masters.  You will serve one.  And you must die to the others.  Your former “yes’s” must dry up.  Be cut off.  Or, eventually, you will fizzle without focus.  Prune.  Remove.  Or you will have too much “extra” weight. You will not be able to move like you need.

Like climbing a mountain with unnecessary weights on your back, eventually it is simply too much to bear.  Every “yes” has its own weights.  We may not experience them right away, but eventually the truth is revealed.  We are forced to reconcile with the weight.

Letting go is not hard when it means losing the weight.  The relief is proportional to how far up the mountain we are on the journey.  If we do not feel the weight of the pack on our back, we have probably not left the house.  A pack weighs nothing resting on the floor.   

Once we have left the house we can feel the weight directly.    

Once we have committed to going - to heading toward a destination, to saying “Yes!” - then we are off.  And once we are off, we can see what was holding us back.  And what can help us.  It is that simple.  We learn where we can simply not hold certain things any longer.

We must drop off what is weighing us down, finally, in order to hold on to the new thing.  But there is a transition there.  There is a time in which nothing is in our hands.  And after carrying something for while, it feels very good to have nothing in our hands.

That freedom is real.  And enough for a time.  We sometimes, in an attempt to feel the “normal” of carrying a weight (one that was never ours to carry) will grab a new weight just because it feels familiar.  We got used to slouching.  Now we are still bending over in guilt.

We got used to being slaves.

But do not bend down. Wait!  Let your back feel that freedom for a second.  Don’t put on another yoke.  Not yet.  Be wise.  Take your time.  Find a yoke that fits you just right.  That is yours and only yours.  Find a yoke that fits only you - where you have been and where you are going.

In the mean time, stretch your back a second.  Let your shoulders feel what it is like.  Rest.  Look up.  Realize in this moment you have everything you need.  You lack nothing.  The time is coming for work.  It is.  But right now, just breath.  Take in the moment.  Gratitude…

Before you strap on another yoke, make sure you understand how paths work.  Know that we and everything in nature finds the essential path.  That is the course of nature.  But we can re-direct paths.  We can guide the structures, or rocks, to make a path go a certain way.

There is a Guide going your way.  There is a path started (being dug) heading in the essential direction you are wanting to go.  The One working is inviting you in.  It has taken a good while to hear the invitation.  Now you are finally in the place to see it as well.

Follow Him. He is worthy.  He is the One who knows the path.  He IS the Path.  When He calls it is not like others who call.  He knows your name.  Your real name.  And hearing it sounds magical.  It is magical.  He is magic.  And He calls you to join His magic, to step into His yoke.

Strangely, putting on that yoke is freeing.  It is exactly the thing we are seeking.  It is the exactly the pace and direction we are heading.  While things may seem to be unraveling, this yoke is not.  In this “yes,” everything else is ordered.  All our variant desires become one.             

We become one.  And that is the most free thing we can become.