Walking through the walls

I recently got back in touch with a friend who has been dealing with some personal challenges.
My gladness at speaking with a friend dear to me after a number of years spilled over in an enthusiasm to share certain perspectives and some of my own challenges of the last ten years.
My friend listened with grace and patience, and after our conversation I started thinking about a recent sermon our head pastor at my church gave a few weeks ago. The most important part of the sermon was focused on having a heart open to spiritual cues, open to the deeper mystery of life, open to a presence deep in our souls and hearts that goes beyond the mere physical when we quiet our distracted, hurried 21st century minds. I later shared some thoughts with my pastor, because his words in turn inspired me to explore further this appealing idea that what is truly profound about life, what is truly sacred about our existence in its purity, lives deep in all of us when we stop and listen, when we allow the silence in our being to reveal its wisdom and insights.
The image of walls came to mind. They are traditionally seen as an image invoking obstacles, hindrances, of various magnitudes and depths. I remember growing up hearing the idea that the path of least resistance was the way to go, just quit trying so hard, go with the flow. There is a lot of wisdom in that, to be sure, but it can also lead to a certain indifference, and it got me thinking about walls instead. I thought of them in that moment after the sermon of not obstacles, but opportunities. I started seeing the walls in my own life as challenges, as invitations to just walk through them. What is required for that, on a spiritual level is a profound conviction that what motivates you to take these walls on is confidence, steeped in a deep belief that the passion giving you the courage to walk successfully not around them but through them is far greater than any resistance their mass could give you. It was a crucial moment for me, a deeply personal revelation that spoke to me with thundering
affirmation, and for all the force of the imagery, it has left me with a deep peace. Not a peace where you just sit around and ponder, but an activating peace, an energizing peace that is driven by the knowledge, yes, knowledge, that we are all far more than the individual number of our own soul, our own identity, our own life. We are all connected to a reality far deeper than the latest trend, the latest tragedy, the latest outrage, the latest national or international struggles. When we quiet our minds and walk with confidence, the walls give way because we are bigger, stronger than them. Does that take effort? It sure does. Continually. But the inner strenght that comes from stopping the fear inside will fuel the energy, the courage needed to keep walking until, perhaps years later, perhaps a lifetime later, those walls are putty in our hands.