A Practical Manual to Following the Path of Jesus Christ

An ancient manual of Christian practice, called the Didache, said there were two ways, the way of life and the way of death. Two paths to follow.

The path of life is the path of Jesus Christ. The path of death is the path of self. The path of Jesus Christ is the path of love, of caring, of compassion. The path of death is the path of selfishness, of fear, of hoarding, of insecurity, of anger, and of hatred.

The only way to experience God in practice is by choosing to care about someone else, and forgetting about yourself or your own wants, needs, and desires in that moment. If you don't forget about these things, they will form a barrier between you and Him.

Love, caring, compassion; the choice to put someone else's interests above your own is the catalyst. It allows Grace to flow through you like power through circuits. It allows you to step back and become oned with God in such a way that you become almost an observer in your own body as you see what He does through you. And when He does this, your concern for the other person intensifies and they become the most important thing to you in that moment, whether it's your dearest friend, or the person who just broke your nose, or gave you a black eye. And it has nothing to do with your feelings. It is the simple yet powerful choice to set anything about you aside, and focus on the other person.

Jesus commanded us to love. There's a reason for it. He commanded us to make the choice to care, because this through Him is our salvation. It allows the union with Him to take place in practice. It doesn't matter who the object of that concern is. It can be the bum on the street, the cashier at the supermarket, your family, your friends, the person who hates you and despises you, God Himself, and it must be each one of these people in turn. The power to do so is there by Grace and by love Grace itself is made active and perfected.

There are two paths, and they are mutually exclusive. You cannot love and be concerned for your own things. It doesn't work that way. If you leave room for yourself it throws up a barrier to love. If you choose, and it is a choice, to worry about your health, your wealth, your fortunes, your wants and desires, your notions, your ideas, it throws up a barrier to love, and consequently to God Himself and union with Him. If you choose to love, you throw yourself to the winds and embrace the other. You can't do both.

Here is how it works. You pray and ask God for Him to love through you. You then choose to focus on the other person, and focus in your mind that this person's best interests are the most important thing in the world to you. That this person is the most important thing to you. You hold on to this. You don't let it go. You willfully forget or ignore your own needs or pains or interests at that time. You will be surprised to discover how easy it becomes when you let go of your fears about it. And you will then experience saying and doing things that don't originate with you but come about through your actions and come through your words and the words coming out of your mouth will teach you as well.

This works no matter who the object of your love is, with the exception of yourself unless you treat yourself as a third party and then only sparingly. When you are with friends, practice it. When you are with someone who despises you, practice it. When you are by yourself, remember that God surrounds you and is within you, and practice it with Him. When you are with a total stranger, practice it. And when you practice it, you are oned with Him. And the more you practice it, the easier it will become.

Focus on nothing else. Nothing else is worth focusing on. Why try to live as long as you can? You will die anyway. Why try to gain more money or a better position in life? You will lose them one way or another. You cannot lose this union except by selfishness. Sell everything you have figuratively and literally if need be to acquire it and you won't be disappointed. As you enter into this union with Him by love you realize as He love the other person through you, how much He loves you a well and you know that this does not change because He doesn't change. He is stationary, static, unmoving. His love is permanent, and does not move as He does not move.

Everything else, anything else, really doesn't matter as long as you work on this. Master this and you master everything because you are in God and God is within you.