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The Question

I saw this on a card at the beach while on a clergy retreat. This and Matthew 7:7-8 are the inspiration for the title of this blog.

Have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart. Try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books written in a foreign language. Do not now look for the answers. They cannot now be given to you because you could not live them. It is a question of experiencing everything. At present you need to live the question. Perhaps you will gradually, without even noticing it, find yourself experiencing the answer, some distant day.
- Rainer Maria Rilke Letters to a Young Poet

Comments

Mark Smith said…
Sort of like "It's in the journey, not the destination"?
Rev Zach Sasser said…
I suppose, yes. Except that I think most people assume that attitude never gets you anywhere. I think it's less polarized and more integrated. I would say that the journey is the destination. The point of living is found in the exploration more than the discovery, however without the discovery there is no point. I think we (in Western society) are becoming so results oriented that we forget why we are seeking clarity in the first place.
Anonymous said…
I like that quote, and I understand it. Most people don't live that way, always demanding answers now. But when you take the time to let the answer come to you, to live the experience without worrying about where you're going, you keep what you've learned so much closer. I like that. It's satisfying in a very spiritual way

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