"but by Me"

Many people tend to believe that many religions are just different paths to our Creator, and we just choose the path that feels like ours. I can't agree with that, never could. If we trust Christ, we have to trust His every word, and here's what...

"Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me." (John 14, 6)

Those underlined words are what causes me to disagree. He's not one of the ways, not even the best of the ways, but the only way.

On the other hand, we can see traces of the same Wisdom in different teachings - in Buddhism or Hinduism, for example, just like in Judaism. Why is that? I feel, just like Romanos wrote recently, those are just different versions of Old Testament, given to different peoples according to their context and culture. But Old Testament is not enough for salvation, it's more of preparation to the Real Thing, or words of advise on how to "survive" until the Real Thing comes in.

I also heard an opinion that it's nonsense to preach Christianity to, for instance, Buddhists, since their beliefs existed long time before Christianity was born. Well, the same could be said about Judaism. But again: those Old Testaments were not enough, even though they are huge, definitely not man-made. Yet, Christ is needed to complete the healing of the human's separation from its Creator.

concentrate on the current step

Yesterday, after the (karate) class, our hanshi (head teacher, the dojo's owner) talked to us a bit about pushing forward when it's difficult. We had an endurance class and that included a few very intensive rounds when everyone comes to the point of failure - but has to keep going. He said we shouldn't allow ourselves to think of the body, of how tired we are, of how far the goal is. Don't look at the far goal all the time, he said. If you're walking up the mountain to the summit, don't look at the top, especially when you're tired - it's so far, it'll discourage you and you won't go/get there. Instead, make the steps, one after another, concentrate on the current step - and that way you'll get there. Don't look back either, as that may bring memories of past failures - and they don't matter, what matters is what you do now. What might also help is thinking of the next activity that is exciting, or of a reward awaiting us after we've done this current tough part. He learned it from the Japanese culture and his teacher during his decades in karate.

This life is tough at times, and we all have to be warriors deep inside to survive and succeed at our responsibilities along the way.