Entering through the Narrow Gate

Nothing worth doing is easy. Success comes from failure. We learn how to get back up by first falling. “Son though He was, He learned obedience from what He suffered.” There are many paths that we can take. Some paths seem easier and lead to temporary joys and pleasures. Some seem more difficult but lead to more lasting joy. On the path of truth and life there will be lies and deaths. These lies will make us doubt our choices and beliefs. These deaths will make us question the meaning of life. The gate and road that leads to life is narrow and constricted not because God does not want people to enter but because the world has made it so. It is hard to enter and difficult to travel on because we have become attached to this world. We have told ourselves that we belong to this world, but we do not. This world is passing, but we were made for eternity. When we cling to what we are not, it will only lead to sorrow, and this sorrow will bring us to despair and hopelessness, and ultimately destruction.

So, may we walk towards that narrow gate and ask the Father to give us the courage to enter through it.  May we come to see the lies of the world as instruments for us to see the truth and the deaths of life as sacrifices that draw us ever closer to Christ. When we can come to see that God uses all things for the good, then the gate and the road to life will not seem too narrow or too constricted because we will come to see those hardships as gifts and moments of grace. So, let us enter through this narrow gate with joy and hope.