Something for the soul's mind

'For many years, I sought a definitive answer to this question in books, in art, in science, in the many dangerous and comfortable roads I have travelled. I have found many answers, some of which lasted me for years, and others that failed to withstand even a single day's analysis; and yet none of them was strong enough for me to be able to say: this is the meaning of life.

Now I am convinced that the answer will never be vouchsafed to us in this life, but that, at the end, when we stand once more before the Creator, we will understand each opportunity that was offered to us, which we either accepted or rejected.

In a sermon of 1890, the pastor Henry Drummond speaks of this encounter with the Creator. He says: The test of man is not, 'How have I believed?' but 'How have I loved?' The final test of religion is not religiousness, but love: not what I have done, not what I have believed, not what I have achieved, but how I have discharged the common charities of life. Sins of commission in that awful indictment are not even referred to. By what we have not done, by sins of omission, we are judged. It could not be otherwise. For the withholding of love is the negation of the Spirit of Christ, the proof that we never knew Him, that for us He lived in vain.'

An excerpt from Paulo Coehlo's Like the Flowing River

I shall not draw on this right now (I will probably in my next blog)...just wanted to put this out there. This man inspires me more than anything I can think of, his words consistently water the seeds in my soul and he manages to windolene my occasional dark perceptions of this world. Honestly, if you want to have a glimpse of the beauty of life again, get this book.

(I swear I shall not make a habit of being so serious....and no, I have not turned from booze to priests).

This was posted in 2007.