Another letter arrived from my friend Miles, God’s soldier. He made it home, and home met him at the door. Here’s what he wrote, followed by my reply.
A Letter from Miles
Man that growing weary in the matrix really hit the nail on the head for me.
You actually took the words right out of my mouth.
Funny
Outsourcing loving our neighbor.
Great.
I made it home. The mundane hit me like a ton of bricks. Dirty kitchen. Whiny kids. Cooking dinner, budgeting money, time.
My slip the other day lives on in today- taking the wind from my sails if I let it- which sadly i do quite often.
I’m on the path.
Trudging the road of happy destiny, as they say.
I won’t give up.
I won’t turn back.
I won’t let the enemy of my soul steal my joy permanently, though he may win the moment.
Oh my god thank you!
Greater is he who is in me than he that is in the world.
Oh my god thank you!
You have revealed your great love for me to me and I can never be the same again after.
Oh my god thank you!
You have redeemed my soul from the pit of emptiness.
You have redeemed my soul from death.
Here’s my reply to your letters, starting with my favorite quotes from them
We’ve become so busy defending our positions that we’ve forgotten our purpose. And it is exhausting.
But perhaps growing weary is not a sign of defeat. Perhaps it’s the beginning of awakening.
And here’s the part I’m beginning to understand: You don’t escape the matrix by defeating everyone inside it. You escape by refusing to become what you despise.
You forgive, even when forgiveness is difficult. You love, even when love isn’t returned. You tell the truth, even when the truth costs you something.
And sometimes you simply turn off the noise, sit quietly, and remember that you were created for something greater than this endless competition.
I have answered the demand with a cannon shot, & our flag still waves proudly from the walls – I shall never surrender or retreat.
I am determined to sustain myself as long as possible & die like a soldier who never forgets what is due to his own honor & that of his country – Victory or Death.
Victory in life through death to self and the world
Talk
Talk talk talk
Constantly talking about it.
This talking is getting old.
Time
Time time time
Been talking about this thing for so long, yet still ain’t got no time.
Everyone says the same things- over and over.
It’s nothing new.
Just the same old thing.
How do I move from talking about the thing to just actually doing the dang thing?
Reach out to guys in the program for no reason at all. Maybe they need to hear from me.
The people I can help help me.
Practice the acceptance prayer constantly.
I allow you to run the universe
I receive what you have for me
I thank you
This is your body
Please help me bend it to your will
Strengthen me to persevere in the way
Thank you.
Spend time every day in quiet solitude.
Talk less.
Be quiet more.
Build the silence in myself.
Choose to surrender rather than rebel when prompted by the spirit of God
Choose to pause and look up for guidance rather than react when tested by the spirit of the world
Surrender at depth IS agency
I am an agent of the most high God
I have chosen death as my pathway to peace
I have been crucified with Christ
It is no longer i who live but Christ who lives in me.
My Reply
Miles,
You quoted me back to myself, which is either a compliment or an intervention. I’m choosing compliment. Those lines read better coming from you. Most things do.
Dirty kitchen. Whiny kids. Dinner, money, time. Nobody writes worship songs about the dishes, but that’s where most of the war gets fought. The mountaintop is easy. Anybody can be holy in the woods. Try it at 6 p.m. with a hungry kid and a skillet that’s still got last night on it. You went home and stood in the middle of it. That counts.
About the slip. You said it lives on in today and takes the wind out of your sails if you let it. You also said the enemy may win the moment, but not the war. Both are true. Yesterday’s slip gets a vote today, but it doesn’t get the gavel. You’re still a chronic get back upper. That’s the title I’d put on your business card.
Then you asked the big one: how do I move from talking about the thing to doing the dang thing? Brother, you answered it three lines later. Call a guy for no reason. Pray the acceptance prayer. Sit quiet every day. Talk less. That’s not more talk. That’s a to-do list. And I’ll confess, I’m the last man who should lecture anybody on talking less. I have a master’s degree in it. But I do know this: you don’t think your way into right living. You live your way into right thinking. One small thing, done today, beats a perfect plan discussed forever.
And you dropped Travis at the Alamo on me. Victory or death. Then you turned it inside out: victory in life through death to self. That’s the whole Gospel in nine words. The flag still waves because the man behind it already died, and Christ lives where he used to.
Surrender at depth IS agency. I’m going to steal that. Consider yourself credited.
Keep trudging the road, soldier. The kitchen will get dirty again tomorrow. So will mine. We’ll both still be on the path.
Carry on.
— JC
“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”
Galatians 2:20 (KJV)
JC is a Birmingham-area musician and writer and the founder of We Rock Network.
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