Mike Paschall . com

For the past couple of months, I’ve handled more boxes and crates than I really want to ever remember. Moving definitely puts you in touch with your baggage… inside and out. Some of these crates we’ve been hauling around for the past 20 years. Unpacking them is just too much. So we’ve hauled them again… and again… and again. It’s fairly harmless when it comes to our tangible stuff, but not so good when it applies to our internals.

We have definitely unpacked more stuff than not, but the energy required to uncover all of our loot requires patience and fearless fortitude. I say patience because our culture seems to be geared with the default posture that if we can’t see immediate visible results then we’re not making progress, or we have failed altogether. That attitude is an enemy to faith. Faith isn’t that practical. Faith involves plunging ourselves into deep mystery. It’s in the deep that transformation happens, and that isn’t always immediately discernable by yourself or others. We all know how to act. We’ve all got a little bit of Hollywood in us.

The fortitude part is the fearlessness and endurance to actually get at “it”—stay at “it”. Breathers and rest are good, but sooner or later, you’ve got to dive back in and address what looms in the dark pile. Real rest remedies fatigue, but sometimes you can’t rest until you’ve confronted what loiters in the shadows. Stay at “it” long enough and you’ll run out of projects. That is some of what freedom feels like.

I’m in the gym about 6 days a week, but there is something about moving that touches muscles that you didn’t realize you had. Everything currently hurts, but that is only temporary. The deed is done. The journey is here.

Advil please.

Love you all!

-MDP-