Lose Yourself Along the Way

He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life?  - Mark 8:34-37

this road you pave with your words

and your broken body and blood poured

it is not on the lustrous map I bought on Amazon

the Travel Channel has not done a feature on the highlights and hot spots

there is no restaurant tour with stops for every palate

and no kitschy giant dinosaurs to stop and take snapshots with the kids

this way that you speak of with mouth wide open

is every dark dream we ever feared might be true

and all that we wish we could fix about our lot

and the sum of all we reject and hide in the mind’s black box

hoping we will never lose control and crash into the jungle

and have its contents played for all to hear

but you say this path, this bumpy road, this crooked cross highway

is the way of life itself, the gift hidden inside the ugly truth

that we will indeed know suffering no matter our resistance

but oh, letting it befriend us we finally have something to live for

something bigger than ourselves, so trembling we submit

and sink into your eddy of mercy and welcome the news

we live only when we have something we are willing to die for

when we know that our lives in their short span were spent for love