God has made a gate for you.

Matthew 7:12-14

            If you have seen any of the Star Wars movies you may recall a scene or two where Imperial Storm Troopers are lined up. There would be countless rows of them looking identical.  One thing that we know about human beings though, none of us are identical. The only category we might fit into is the category where everything is dissimilar to everything else.

           This diversity of humanity is often something we celebrate and elevate. From the road less travelled to the brilliance of a mind like Hawking or the artistic beauty and brilliance of a DaVinci. It seems odd then that there are times when we strive to be similar. We like things in nice tidy little boxes where everything is the same and everything can judged by the exact same rule. I don't know if it is human nature or not but there seem to be countless victims of this kind of 'normalization'. Even if God's created world reveals a grand diversity in every measure of life on this blue orb, we still seem to prefer an exact standard.

           The road to oblivion, that easy and wide gate it seems to me might very well be the way of the masses. Conformity. Being like everyone else is a wide gate indeed.

          So then, what is the narrow gate, the gate that leads to life? That gate is the gate designed specifically for you. It's the one God made that fits exactly who you are and who God created you to be. It isn't always easy to find out who you are what you are meant to be. Many an unhappy person and many a mid life crisis is caused by going along with the masses, doing what someone else told you should do and then finding later in life that all that stuff you did does not in fact make you happy. Happiness is the narrow gate of finding out who you are and cooperating with God's plan for you.

          It could be acceptance that you are gay. It could mean an acceptance that you are neither male nor female, perhaps a hybrid? It could mean cooperating with the freedom of your artistic side or accepting some other gift that you have fought against.

        We are all aware of our propensity to go the easy route and get in through the wide gate. We like uniformity. At the same time we have a guttural reaction to a nun who tortured a youth to be write with his or her right hand when the person was clearly left handed. We don't view left handedness evil.  We celebrate fighting against uniformity in the same breath we seem to judge others with the broadest stroke possible.

        If we walk, talk, drive or just simply look out a window though, we know the diversity and beauty of God's created world in nature. Such diversity is obvious in humanity as well on every level. Finding our own uniqueness, elevating it and celebrating it is a lifelong journey and it is - the narrow gate.

‘In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets.

‘Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it. For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it.