Expansive Beauty on the Narrow Road.

Stunning, expansive beauty emerges on the narrow road.

Jesus said, "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it."

My friend Larry keeps teaching me that as we experience the narrowing on the heart road, there is less and less room for all of my paraphernalia. Honestly, I like my paraphernalia. A glance at my phone screen. The buzz of my amazon purchase. Feeling like people liked the Hoedown last weekend. Paraphernalia can be tricky. And it ends up taking up a lot more heart space than I realize. Longing and panting for recognition, thrill, calm or distraction crowds out the still, small voice of longing and panting for real life.

Lea Paige arrived at 54 yesterday. We spent the day remembering and reviewing 53. It is almost more than I can take in. Watching Lea cultivate in the dirt at Beacon Hall, the soil of her granddaughters young life, the garden of her children, the autumn of her mother's days and the neediness of this complex man is one of the clearest pictures of what emerges as the road narrows.

Stunning, expansive beauty.

I've never encountered a more alive, abundant, appetite for God soaked living in my life. I want to name what I see in Lea. It is part of my discipleship. I am more hungry for the relationship of the Trinity because of living my life with Lea. I know there are others of you that can say this with me. The world around us is screaming more is more, but Jesus is showing that less is more in Lea's daily living. Her paraphernalia shrinks daily. As Trinity strips away paraphernalia, there is more room for the beauty of Christ to expand on the narrow road. Expansive beauty in a narrowing place. Only God can cultivate this kind of story. Beauty that is so radiant that I have to look away for moments because it is so bright.

So bright.

Stunning, expansive beauty emerges on the narrow road.

I'm watching it happen in my squinting eyes.

There's more.