Wm. Paul Young - Cross Roads Reflections: Inspiration for Every Day of the Year

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Copyright Wm. Paul Young 2013

All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the authors intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at permissions@hbgusa.com. Thank you for your support of the authors rights.

Cover and interior design by Koechel Peterson and Associates, Inc., Minneapolis, Minnesota

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First ebook edition: September 2013

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ISBN 978-1-4555-7362-2

To our Clans Warren, Young Boyle, Bruneski, Johnson, Landis, Racanelli, Sparrow, Steele

So thankful for you all, and all you have been to us! Our roots are deep and strong, Down into the River of Life, The Tree now bearing fruit for healing!

Thank you for picking up this book of Reflections, a journey of encountering various Cross Roads and responding, or not, to their implicit invitation to stop, listen, and take the risks involved in transformational change. This is not intended to be a daily devotional in the traditional sense. I love such booksOswald Chambers My Utmost for His Highest, being one of my favorites, or the writings of F. W. Boreham.

This book of Reflections is a different sort of journey. Each month has an overarching theme and raises questions and conversations within that theme. It follows the arc of the story line in Anthony Spencers life, the main character in the novel Cross Roads, and therefore you will recognize a movement over the course of the year. Sometimes the connections will be quite subtle, such as a word that can also be defined as vague, but it is not my job nor within the scope of my abilities to make the connections from words and questions to your heart and soul and mind. That I respectfully and gratefully leave to the Holy Spirit, who is a redeeming genius.

We are all living in the same world of wonder and wounded, but often it seems as though we each inhabit a different universe, parallel and intersecting and yet wholly and holy our own. We are designed by and for community and yet also intended to be alone and distinct. Both are celebrated, and both are important and good, part of the great dance into which we have been created and included. Perhaps we ought not to be surprised that this rhythm and movement creates such beauty and such tension, but we often are exactly thatamazed, dismayed, joyful, torn, and we vacillate between light and dark. This book is an attempt to celebrate all of that, especially the penetration into the ordinary of everything that is extra-ordinary until you cannot distinguish the one from the other.

Sometimes the reflection is for you to see yourself and ask the questions that might arouse some deeper self-awareness. At other times, it may be for anothersomeone you love or someone you are trying to forgive or even someone you hardly know. Both are calls to prayer, a slowly emerging prayer over the course of the year, a conversation inside a relationship that involves speaking and listening. It will always include an other, visible or invisible, an expression of Aloneness and Community. In these words, I trust that you will know that should I see you along lifes journey, my desire is to be with you, to not cross the road and pass you by. You matterto me, to the cosmos, to God.

W M . P AUL Y OUNG , Author of Cross Roads

T he idea of actual change was daunting. The more entrenched in his habits and securities, the less inclined he was to believe that anything else was worth the effort if even possible. Known routines, even though painful at times, at least had their own predictability.

I do like the idea of change; it has a romantic air of challenge and wonder. My experience of actual change has often been painful and messy. I suppose it is easier to stay inside my lonely house and dream about change. Can I tell you that I really dont like loneliness, but in time the oldest shirts become the most comfortable?

A ll was quiet as if the world was holding her breath. There are many ways to be alone.

Please teach me the difference between lonely and alone, how to move away from the isolation of lonely but into the embrace of the alone. Wait, on second thought, I think I will stay with lonely for a while longer. While it might not be a good friend, its at least someone I know.

H e was determined and ever in search of the next advantage. That often required an outgoing and gregarious presence, broad smiles, eye contact, and firm handshakes, not because of any true consideration, but because everyone potentially held information that would be valuable in positioning for success. His many questions created the aura of genuine interest, leaving others with both a sense of significance but also a lingering emptiness.

I am such a Jacob at timesmanipulator, usurper, scrambler. I want to become authentic. I just dont know how to get there. Please?

K nown for gestures of philanthropy, he understood the value of compassion as a means to more important objectives. Caring made people that much easier to manipulate.

The means justify the ends, the means justify the ends, the means What a diabolical lie, especially when the ends are all wrong to begin with. I confess that I dont even know how to do the right thing with the right motives. I need you to change my heart!

A fter a few halting attempts he has concluded that friends of any depth were a bad investment. So little return. Actual caring was inconvenient and a luxury for which he had no time or energy.

I did try the friend thing you remember. Didnt work out so well. If I recall, I wanted them to be perfect friends, everything I needed them to be for me, not real people. I keep getting invited into relationships and I keep resisting, staying safe, and staying lonely. What are you trying to say to me?