"Around the Mountain"

During my morning readings I came across a notion, a thought, an idea that I want to share with you. I was reading "Conversations with God" Book 1, which I've already read, but occasionally like to go back and read as I would the bible. The section I was reading was talking about fear and love. God is saying, that every decision we make comes from one of two emotions, either fear or love. This book, among others, has actually opened up a better understanding of the bible for me. That statement alone will usually buy me eternal damnation in the eyes of many Christians, because they believe, as I did once in my life, that the bible is the only definitive book and information highway on God. Well, as I am reading about the journey from fear to love I am beckoned back to the story of the Israelites journey out of a life of bondage in Egypt, to the land of milk and honey promised by God. If you've ever read the story you know that these hooligans spent the good part of 40 years wandering in the desert and going around the same mountain, when in reality, whatever that is, the journey to the land of milk and honey was a short distance. So, I started thinking, God help us all, who said that? What if the mountain represented Fear and the land of milk and honey really represented Love? Do you really believe that these people were so inept that they could not navigate this short distance across the desert? I believe this story has a much deeper meaning. I believe that the Israelites spent those 40 years in the desert by choice, and that choice was fear. What did they fear? Well first of all, they feared something new. They had been comfortable slaves, eating their leeks and onions in Egypt, for years. They feared the unknown. What was this land of milk and honey? Certainly, God did not love them enough to give them such a place. They had grown lazy and complacent. So, they begrudgedly start out on this journey that from the get go most of them don't even want to go on and the one's that do have the job of being "cheerleader" to the ones that don't! A sure recipe for disaster! They leave Egypt and then spend the next 40 years complaining, going around in circles, lost, and most of them die there. Do you believe that most people, due to their fear and insecurities, and lack of love, go around the same mountain all of their lives and usually die on that mountain of fear? I do! I believe some die clinging to their mountain of disappointments, resentments, jealousy, anger, and regret! When all the while, the land of "milk and honey" was just a short distance beyond that desert, that mountain, they just had to believe it existed and change direction and go!

"The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step." Lao-Tzu