Old Friends & Momma T

To My Readers,

I have been trying to find time to write to you for much to long now. Today I decided to finally complete this task which has been on my todo list screaming at me for a while. So I did what every good blogger does. I grabbed my macbook, bible, and sat down at a coffee shop where I opened Facebook. This distraction of course wasn't helping my cause until I ran across an old friend's note of a poem from Mother Teresa. It was quite a powerful and moving small poem that I decided regardless of whether I finish another blog post today or not, I needed to share this with you.

People are often unreasonable, illogical and self centered;
Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you've got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and your God;
It was never between you and them anyway.

I am very thankful for your Post Amy Searle. What a great share. She shared with me that she in fact had heard it at New Hope who had Ajai speaking today-a missionary from India. I'd like to share that regardless of the circumstances of this quote, its originating voice of a missionary speaking in Pearland (this morning) reached a college student in San Antonio (later that afternoon). Our God shares no extent to getting a message to those who need to hear.

Simply,
Tex G.M. Rule
"Whatever you do, do well. For when you go to the grave,[b] there will be no work or planning or knowledge or wisdom." Ecclesiastes 9:10, NLT

Pilgrims & Old Professors

To my readers,

I have tried writing several different blogs over the last few weeks, only to find each of them wasn't what I was to post. Something deep within me wanted me to wait: so I did. Over this time, I continued to write and journal.

Usually these writings are just for me however, I started a piece about a seaward pilgrim with no destination. Ultimately, he journeyed because of this deep whisper calling it to itself, however where is that? Today while working on it, I knew this was what I am supposed to share so here is a small chunk from the journaling that has become what I'm calling (at least for the moment) "The Pilgrim."

An old professor would be quite amused to know I am writing about Pilgrimage years after taking his course on Spiritual Pilgrimage. He was a great professor and I have to say that I still have every handout from that course. It, and the insane amount of time the break has given me, has given me a lot of the influence for developing this idea. If you happen to be reading this "Grandpappy" thanks for not giving up on me and kicking me in the butt along the way.

I am a pilgrim at sea. You might ask where my destination may be, however that I cannot say. I cannot say, for the reason is, I don’t know. You see, burrowed deeply within me there is a faint whisper calling me to flight. This whisper is so faint, it would simply take a thought to drown it out. It requires all of me to focus on its beckoning. I know not the place of origin, but I must heed its order; to venture onward to the unknown.

I left everything behind for this journey; my home, family, everything. Since I first heard the soft echo, everything else had just become noise. Nothing was the same. It was as though the world around me had enchantingly grown overnight, hinting that everything was just marginal. If I could hear those who know me, I am sure, they’d call me mad, insane, even a lunatic. Perhaps I was. The thought certainly had crossed my mind, but regardless I can’t deny this fire kindling inside. With every step I took forward, though I couldn’t hear it, this whisper started to grow louder. I knew that I must continue, no matter how senseless it appeared.

Despite the obvious errors, let me know what you think. (in case you're one of those: spoiler alert) In essence, the voice our pilgrim hears is God, calling our sailer to himself. This work is my attempt to discuss the spiritual pilgrimage we all must take towards our King.

I am sure this has opened a crazy large can of worms so I will end with this last part. Here is the question I want to leave because some of you may essentially ask why only this 'pilgrim' has this calling inside him? My answer to that is another question followed by another one: Does everyone have this whisper deep within them calling them to pilgrimage? If so, could it be that we haven't heard this whisper because we weren't listening or we have drowned the noise with what we 'want' in life?

simply,
tex g.m. rule
"But they were looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a heavenly city for them." Hebrews 11:16, NLT