If the gospels teach us anything, it is that life should be lived as a journey, not a destination (heaven is the destination). Our travels, though, are often clouded by duties, commitments, and dare I say it, possessions. How do we keep forging ahead without be too tied down?
We strip.
Often our lives are burdened with clutter, a clutter that attempts to cover our fear of the unknown. Possessions make good blankets or cuddle toys. They can also trip us up and keep us occupied with the lesser things of life, with the mundane instead of the mystery.
The desert Abbas and Ammas left all for the desert sands. What could they learn in the sand that they couldn't learn in the city? Want. It's okay to want, it's okay to need, it's okay not to be fulfilled. That's what keeps us yearning and moving forward. It's when we think we are satiated (and we never really are) that we settle down along a humdrum path that eventually makes us bored with life. So we clutter our lives with even more possessions, hoping to find contentment. And we never do. Not really.
Stripping takes courage. And a constant stepping forward. I need to examine my life for those aspects that trip me. Only I can figure out how to strip myself, so that I can experience the good want that keeps me seeking the Divine.
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