For more than twenty years I have asked myself the same question -
'What is life about?'
And I know I've been in one of the slowest classes - as anyone who knows me can testify - but I think there might be others who are just as slow to grasp as I am. So let me share what I found, in the hope that others might be able to use it.
I have moved through endless amounts of books on personal development, chased answers in psychology, philosophy, biography, therapy, models and frameworks from near and far. I found much that helped and created light - but always with the feeling that something was missing.
Only when I turned towards faith and towards the underlying creative principle - God - did the contours begin to stand clear. Because what I was searching for was not a new trick, a method or a strategy. It was the weaving itself behind all life.
And in this convergence of experience and faith it dawned on me - here I finally got usable words for what Christianity's stories have been trying to communicate right before my eyes all along - without me having been able to capture it.
That life is a weaving of patterns.
That most of us only see the fragments.
And that meaning first reveals itself when we learn to see the whole.
The deepest patterns are the fundamental ones - they are about order and truth.
Because truth is not merely a human ideal or a psychological necessity. Truth is the Basic Structure of the Universe itself. The constant it is blown to life upon.
The principle that from the beginning set Cosmos in Order and separated Light from Darkness, Form from Chaos.
It is Logos - the Word, the Thought, the Order through which Everything was created. Everything that exists rests upon this principle. And everything that severs itself from it falls apart. Without Logos nothing can hold together.
Therefore Truth must stand highest, as the fundamental principle towering above everything else. Because Truth is not something we invent - Truth is something we discover, because it is already there.
This is why we say - Jesus is the Truth. He is Logos, The Living Pattern, the Foundation in which everything Consists.
This is why one says - 'Jesus is the Truth'. He is the pattern that stands highest. The Pattern of Patterns. The King Pattern. The Way. What we aim towards. Without Him - without Order rooted in Truth - everything crumbles.
When you hear the word Jesus from now on - try for a period to replace it with what I describe above. Or Truth.
And then hold on to the chair you're sitting in.
From here follows a sequence that is self-explanatory when you build on the idea of Truth at the top.
When Truth stands firm, Love can take root.
Love is the pattern that unites all living things, binds mother to child, man to woman, human to God. Love is not Sentimentality, but the very fabric from which all genuine life is woven.
And therefore we say - 'Jesus is Love'. He is the example of how life should be woven. Without Him everything crumbles.
On Love's ground Freedom can grow.
Not the Freedom that is Arbitrariness, but that which comes from standing on Truth and being carried by Love - the Freedom that enables Man to bear Responsibility, make Choices, Act.
This is why we say - 'Jesus is Freedom'. Because without Him no pattern exists, and without Him everything crumbles.
From these three pillars Health and Strength are born - the Body's Harmony with the Soul, that Life Force which is not only about absence of sickness, but about Surplus, Capacity to Act, Courage.
And therefore we say - 'Jesus is Life'. He is the very Force that holds the pattern together. Without Him everything crumbles.
When Truth, Love, Freedom and Strength are woven together, Beauty arises. Beauty is the pattern that makes the world Transparent to the Divine. Everything that is truly Beautiful carries Truth within it, Love within it, Freedom within it.
And therefore we say - 'Jesus is Beauty'. Because without Him everything crumbles.
And from beauty wisdom springs.
Wisdom is the pattern that sees all the other patterns and understands how they are woven together. The one who becomes wise can see deeper than the surface - can know the True, the Good and the Beautiful, even when the world is hidden in Darkness.
And therefore we say - 'Jesus is Wisdom'. He is the Pattern that Illuminates all Patterns. Without Him everything crumbles.
At last Belonging and Connectedness are born - not as a demand, but as a natural expression of Man having woven his life into the Whole. Family, Friendship, Prosperity - all of this becomes Fruit, not Goal.
And therefore we say - 'Jesus is Connectedness'. He is the pattern that binds everything into one. Without Him everything crumbles.
Such is the patterns' order and sequence, so they may be woven truly.
Truth.
Love.
Freedom.
Health and strength.
Beauty.
Wisdom.
Belonging.
This inner knowledge - experience and clarity - means that when I one day stand at the exit of my life, the question is not what I owned or accomplished - that is transient - but which pattern I wove around me.
Was it strong enough to carry. Does the pattern leave an inheritance and legacy carried by these pillars, woven so clearly that I set a clear example of the path that was shown to me.
And to you, my friend -
May your life be woven of Truth, permeated by Love, carried by Freedom, strengthened by Life, illuminated by Beauty, enlightened by Wisdom - and held together by the Belonging that never dies.
So that on your final day you can step into eternity with peace in your heart - because your pattern was woven in Him.
❤️🔥🪽
Did you catch it?
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Sidenote
When I speak of Truth as the highest principle, it is worth noting two things, for you who want to test it -
1. "The Truth will set you free."
Truth is the forgiveness that is always available to any of us. Because when we place ourselves in the centre of Truth - orient ourselves towards it (Jesus), embrace it, accept it, recognise it - then the Lie releases its grip on us. And when the lie falls, the natural chain of harmonisation and consonance, which can only arise when Truth stands highest, can spring forth. It rebirths us. Gives us a new opportunity to weave the patterns in us correctly together. To live in accordance with our being and soul.
2. Power's fear of Truth.
Everyone knows deep down that reality bends to Truth. Because once we see it demonstrated, Man cannot deny it. We bow to it. Therefore any power that does not rest in Truth is always afraid of it. Because it will expose the hollowness, the false patterns and the misweaving that the power builds upon. Therefore Truth almost always lives suppressed, ridiculed, displayed as naive or foolish. It is attempted kept out of the spaces where it could take hold. Because everyone knows what happens when Truth first takes hold of a rotten structure - Collapse follows.
