TWLI

The Way Life Is. TWLI is the abbreviation they used in the Profound Journey Dialog as shorthand for the way life is. Life is a series of desires and limits. We desire good but are limited by evil. Polar opposites. We say light is the opposite of dark. Yet, these polarities, or opposites are not life. Instead life is the tension, or the buzz between the two. A good example is a magnet - the north and south poles are opposites, but the magnetic attraction comes from the energy flowing between the two. We can see the opposites in the Christmas story. There is a pregnant virgin. There is a king afraid of a baby. There are Angels singing on an otherwise silent night. A baby, born in a stable, to poor unwed parents is said to be the savior of the world. These opposites are there to remind us of the pull, of the buzz between these opposites where Life is. They are representative our struggle with our desires and with the very real limits of life. Life is not lived in black and white - instead Life is lived in the grey, but Life is defined and shaped by the black and white lines. When we forget those lines we forget the sacred in Life and everything and anything and nothing becomes meaningful; but when we say only those lines are sacred we lose the pulse and love and meaning in everyday life. Our job, as religious people, is to remind each other of the child that is born inside us that is that buzz and pull and tension of Life. We are to remind each other of The Way Life Is.

Disclaimer: Most of this post was inspired by, or direct examples from, a sermon I heard today at Church. I want to give full credit to Jim Rigby at St. Andrew's Presbyterian in Austin, TX.