A gate so narrow

After Matthew 7:13-14 

To enter this gate,

this gate so narrow,

remove all unnecessary

clothes, stripping down

to your underwear.

To enter this gate, set

aside anything you

carry with you, 

your cash, your jewelry,

your credit cards,

your stocks and bonds,

your real estate,

everything you’d want

to take with you.

To enter this gate,

crouch down on 

your hands and knees, 

even as rock and

stone and brokenness

tear at your skin. Then

move forward, forward

into the light.

 

Photograph by Lomig via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Two gates

After Matthew 7:13-14 

It’s a narrow gate

by which you enter.

It’s a wide gate

by which you’re

swept along

with the crowd,

jostling, yelling,

swelling, angry,

believing the wide

gate is the entrance

to what the crowd 

wants. It is the entrance

to what the crowd

earns. The narrow gate,

requiring movement

in almost single file,

is a hard, difficult

path but also the true

entrance. 

Few choose it.

 

Photograph by Neil Martin via Unsplash. Used with permission.