The proof of God is hidden everywhere—so subtle that each clue is easy to dismiss on its own as the New Atheists often do with the reductive lens that they bring to analysis. But when you can hold all the subtle clues together, you can trace the patterns that thread through the subtle clues, till His awe-some glory becomes evident.

Every time I see the dance of colors in the sky before the sun rises, I’m reminded of the Way being prepared for the Lord. Many are awe-struck by that dance and mistake God’s creation—the sun—for God Himself. But no, God is distinct from His creation, even as His presence shimmers through every part of it.

The life of the Christ is unique in that it clearly demonstrates a template for this Straight Path. A template because your Straight Path will differ in how it appears at the surface from someone else’s but there is a template for the Straight Path that keeps us all connected to the Grace of God.

The resurrection of the Christ after His crucifixion is proof that, indeed, by walking this Straight Path, one is not subject to the forces of Death. And as such, the resurrection is a crucial element of this demonstration of the Straight Path of God.

It is quite wild to sit with that idea and let it sink in fully in a culture where we assume that we are all subject to Death. The implication being that if you instead subject yourself to the King of Kings, you are no longer subject to Death. Before Jesus came through, the Buddha had noticed that the cyclicity of life and death that seems to be the basis of ancient Indian traditions, was an assumption. Enlightenment is a break in that assumption. So there is precedence for such fundamental shifts in our understanding.

If you don’t walk the Straight Path of God, you die and then you are reborn again. You are given a clean slate to make another attempt to walk the Straight Path. This is the cycle of samsara, that the Buddha spoke of. The cycle that the Buddha sought to end with the Middle Way. The core claim of the Enlightenment of the Buddha is an end to the cycle of life and death. Where is the Buddha then, if no longer stuck in samsara? The Buddhist theological perspective is that the Buddha then returns to free other humans. What does it mean to exit samsara, if you must return to free the others? I’m not quite sure what to make of that.

Through the physical sacrifice of the Christ’s body, God’s Grace has become easily available to anyone who asks for it. Anyone who has wandered far from the Way can now hop back, immediately, onto it if they ask for the Grace that flows freely through the blood of Christ. Contrast this with the Buddhist path that emphasizes letting go of your possessions, even your family, so that you can strive individually to attain the same! Embracing celibacy and then striving with various practices to achieve that state. Much harder! This is the crucial gift that is available to all humans through the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. A much easier pathway to the Grace of God.

If this free offering of Grace by God isn’t Love, I don’t know what is. Showing up for another human in that gracious way is the signature of love.

Practically speaking, it means holding a steady open heart towards another. You may allow the kind of relationship you’re exploring to change but stay steadily open in your heart. Allow the other person to falter in their attempts to meet you without letting resentment creep in. Hold grace.

Resentment has a proclivity of stacking up very quickly, if it isn’t regularly flushed. The more resentment stacks up, the thicker the sheath grows around your heart. Truly, my friend, resentment poisons your body. Scowls freeze on your face. Your skin dries up. Your body tightens up, the more you allow resentment to collect.

Holding a steady open heart towards another requires maintaining agency in what boundaries you need. Boundaries allow me to keep my heart open. When I don’t uphold physical boundaries, I have noticed that they sneak up and create protective energetic sheaths around my heart. The sheaths that God has asked us all to circumcise, which, unfortunately, was understood by some of the Old Testament prophets as penile circumcision.

A circumcised heart is capable of healed love. Love free of lust. Stray away from the Straight Path of God, into the luscious arms of lust, and you’ll develop an orientation towards other human beings that is driven by the desire to extract pleasure from as contrasted with sharing pleasure with. In exchange, you’ll allow, in fact, need others to take from you, not knowing that both you and the other could together step out of this extractive orientation into the free-flowing grace-filled love of God.

Life with a circumcised heart is healing. Healing without needing to pay anyone for that healing. All payments for your healing have already been made through the Body of Christ. So why do you need to go around trying to find expensive human practitioners to heal you? Figuring out complicated healing modalities to take care of your body? Receive the healing power of the blood that gushes out in your name through the Body of Christ and let that cleanse you of all infection instead.

Learn what the Straight Path of God is, so that you do not stray off it, so your Body may stay healed. Obey the guidance of the Straight Path of God and notice the fruits it bears in your physical and emotional life.

The Straight Path is quite simple. From the outside, it may seem daunting. But the sense of being daunted comes from the burdens that are living inside you, which flee away from you, once you commit to the Straight Path of God. Burdens of lust, disease, anxiety and death. They are daunted when they see you considering hopping onto the Straight Path of God. When enmeshed with these burdens, you feel daunted yourself. But once you hop onto the Straight Path of God, you notice that the burdens vanish. The heavy yoke that you were carrying all along is exchanged for a much lighter yoke offered by Jesus.

Such is the glory of the Straight Path of God! Prepare it in your own heart and receive the many fruits!