The Gate

by Tilly Nichols

This is the Gate.

The word used in reference to drug recovery sounds so metaphorical, and I guess in the Art and Tilly Program.. (hehe you don't mind Mr Nichols do you?) is has reached a metaphoric level too. I could imagine if we were on Vacation in Cabo for a month or something we would find some form of La Puerta to fill in. The gate to us is mereley a gate that is a short didtance into the fields where we have become accustomed to walking to sometimes several times in one day. Not through, but too. We have a metallic sharpie I hide by the trail, and we mark off every trip we take there. It sounds so cool though. A recovery program called the Gate.....sounds familiar so I googles it and heres the answer google gave......wait to save time just note how many hits it got....Results 1 - 10 of about 342,000 for the gate drug recovery. (0.15 seconds) .

Every major philosophy has a metaphoric "gate lesson" so I looked to the bible this morning for a thought to carry with me for the day.

Lesson - Matt 7:13-14; Matt. 6:24

Matthew 7:13-14 Enter ye in by the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leads to destruction, and many are they that enter in thereby. For narrow is the gate, and straitened the way, that leads unto life, and few are they that find it.

Life is like a road. When you came to church tonight, you took a road to get here. There were other streets that you could have taken, but you wouldn't have ended up here. You had to follow a certain path to get here. If you'd taken a different road, you would have ended up somewhere else.

Jesus said that the choices we make in life are like picking which road to take. He describes two roads. One is wide, and flat, and easy with a wide gate at the end. The other is narrow, and rugged, and difficult, with a narrow opening at its end. Most people take the easy road, and few take the narrow one. But Jesus said that the wide and easy road leads to destruction, and the straight and narrow road leads to eternal life.

When we have to make choices in life, we have to base our decisions on more than what is easiest. Often what seems easiest or most appealing is the worst choice we can make. Satan wants us to sin, so he makes sin look good. But we have to know where our decisions will lead us. We have to look at the consequences of our decisions.

Today will be busy. There is a wedding on the Rancho, seedlings coming up, a 30 day sobriety cheesecake party, weedwhacking so we dont get snakebit, and house cleaning to be done etc....but sober, strong and yes even religious is all in our program.... and here I am blogging, studying the bible and getting back to life on El RANCHO ALL TO SOME SPANGLISH FREDDY FENDER AND HANK WILLIAMS. LIFE IS GOOD!