Life is about tragedy as much as triumph, it's about failure and redemption. We cannot truly succeed unless we risk failure. We cannot truly find salvation unless we risk damnation.
It's about more than learning to avoid temptation. I think it's about falling into temptation and pulling yourself up out of it. Redemption is possibly the most admirable human quality.
If I hadn't been a soldier and lost friends in the wars I'm not sure I would have embraced nonviolent resistance so whole heartedly.
My journey brought me much heartache and many life changing blessings. But every twist and turn of my life shaped me into who I am today, and so even though I regret much, I wouldn't change anything because that might have changed me as a result and maybe not for the better.
The death of several friends, the onset of my mental illness, my marriage and my step kids, have all made an imprint on me. They taught me about those in my life for better and worse or they have taught me about my strengths and weaknesses and even how to improve myself.
The scriptures are full of stories about the journey of prophets and patriarchs, sinners and saints and it's always in the journey that they found meaning and us in return.
The journey of Paul is significant to me because he went from hating the early Christian movement and killing the first Christian martyr Stephen to a man who became the most influential missionary in history and writing 2/3 of the New Testament and dying as a Christian martyr himself.
This changed happened in response to Christ meeting Paul, on the road to Damascus hot on the trail of the first Christians, and asking Paul "Why are you persecuting me?"
Paul had a change of heart and though he sinned greatly he repented and went on to sin no more. His journey was necessary to put him on the best path.
But the path is what we make of it. Fate will bring things into your life but your choices keep them there or remove them. But it's in the journey that we find meaning. It's in the journey that we find ourselves. And it's in the journey that we find our salvation.
The goal isn't just to return to heaven is about living a life worth living. It's about making the journey worth it despite the tragedies because we may redeem ourselves in triumph.
