Paths We Follow

In this episode of the Infinitely Precious Podcast, titled “Paths We Follow,” James Henry reflects on what it means to walk the path of Jesus not just as a matter of belief, but as a way of life. He highlights three key practices that shaped Jesus’ journey and can guide ours: grounding ourselves daily in prayer and silence to tune our hearts to God, cultivating presence so that we meet people and moments without distraction, and embracing abundance by recognizing that “enough” is already a gift. James emphasizes that Jesus’ example was never meant to be elevated beyond reach, but to be lived and imitated in intentional, everyday practices. Ultimately, he reminds listeners that whatever path they walk, they are infinitely precious and unconditionally loved for the gift they already are.

Episode Transcript

intro (00:00):
Welcome to the Infinitely Precious Podcast produced by

(00:03):
Infinitely Precious LLC. Yourhost is James Henry. Remember,
you are infinitely precious andunconditionally loved for the
gift you already are.

James (00:13):
Hello, beloved. It's me, James. And I'm coming to you,
once again for anotheropportunity to share a podcast,
some thoughts this week. One ofthe things that has been on my
mind, this particular week hasto do with the path we follow in

(00:36):
life and how we follow thatpath. Now, as I think about the
path, I also think about thefact that we each come from a
place, a perspective, a point ofview, And it is indeed a view
from a point.
I have long been raised by andmothered by the path of Jesus,

(01:04):
following that path in my life.And I speak very specifically
about the path of Jesus, and thereason why I speak about it as a
path is because it's more thanjust something we believe with
our mind, even with our heart.It's a way of living
intentionally and walking alonga path that imitates the path

(01:31):
that Jesus himself walked andtakes its example from the life
of Jesus, this man of twothousand years ago, and yet the
habits that he brought into exthat he highlighted, maybe not
brought into existence, but thehabits that he lived are meant

(01:56):
to be, if you will, guidepostsfor our lives, how we live. Now
for so many people I know, theywant to believe in Jesus. Now I
have no issues whatsoever ifthat's the point of view, the

(02:18):
perspective from which you'recoming, but I think what Jesus
would really want from us morethan simply to believe that he
existed, that he's the son ofGod or whatever thing that you
think is important to believe, Ithink that he would want us to
imitate his path.
Otherwise, why would there be aform that we could follow? Why

(02:41):
would there be a person whotaught certain practices who
helped us learn to think outsidethe box, teaching in parables
and the like. So if followingthe path of Jesus for each one
of us is a path for us, what aresome of the markers that lead us

(03:05):
to a place where we can followthat path? What is it about
Jesus and the way he lived thatperhaps we can resonate with,
that we can live. Obviously, twothousand years ago, world was
different, technology wasdifferent, worldview was
different.

(03:28):
The perspective from which firstcentury people of the Southwest
Asian area, what we sometimescall the Middle East, what was
specific to Jesus? And we couldstart just about anywhere with

(03:51):
some of the things that he does,but I want to start, I'm going
to just outline some that cometo my mind right off the bat.
We're told over and over againin the story of Jesus' life, in
the gospels, the good news, thathe began his day grounded in
prayer. Now, when I think ofprayer, and when I think of

(04:17):
prayer, from what I have come tounderstand is a first century
perspective, it's less aboutsaying lots and lots of words.
In fact, in the Sermon on theMount, Jesus said, don't be like
the hypocrites who mount uppiles of words.
It's not about piles of words.It's about tuning our heart to

(04:38):
God, And oftentimes the best wayto tune our heart to God is in
silence. Silence isn't somethingnecessarily we do particularly
well. Silence is something weoften avoid. We fill empty
silences with sounds and words.
If it's quiet, oftentimes wemight find ourselves wanting by

(05:03):
sort of a knee jerk reaction toturn on some music, or to talk
to somebody or to pick up andwatch reels on our phone or some
other distracting thing. Ifyou're not plagued by that,
that's wonderful, but Jesuslooked for and found that
grounding in kind of a morningprayer, which I envision from

(05:28):
listening to, that it wasn't allabout words and the accumulation
of words. It was instead anopening of the self, a standing
back, a sitting down, closingthe eyes, falling into silence,

(05:52):
falling into a place where itwasn't all about his own agenda.
It was about listening so too hecould be in tune with the one he
would have called alaha oralaha, God in Aramaic, to fall

(06:14):
in tune because in that groundedspace one sees from a wider
perspective. The widerperspective receives from a
wider space and is more spaciousthemselves to receive what
comes.

(06:36):
Every day we have no idea whenwe enter into the day, what that
day will hold. And if we beginthat day, ground that day in an
openness and an in tune ness towhat God is doing all around us,
what God is doing within us, andopenness to receive whatever

(06:59):
comes our way, we're betterprepared to face whatever that
thing that comes our way is. Soa grounding in prayer, and it's
probably a silent prayer, ameditative practice, perhaps
centering prayer, perhaps amantra based sitting. And yes, I

(07:23):
follow the path of Jesus, andyes, the path of Jesus has
several forms of meditation thatare available to us. Centering
prayer, which is a self emptyingform, mantra based meditation,
which is simply choosing a wordand letting that word become the
focus as we try to get ourdistracted minds to be clear, to

(07:48):
be present, to stay focused.
So prayer as a grounding place.The second thing I would say is
because Jesus began in thatgrounded presence, he practiced
presence wherever he went.Wherever he was, wherever he
went, there he truly was. If hestopped to talk to somebody who

(08:13):
everyone else thought was nobodyon the side of the road, he was
in that conversation. If he wasinterrupted on his way somewhere
else, he didn't treat theinterruption so much as an
interruption, as an opportunity.
When the woman who reached outand touched his garment because

(08:34):
she had been struggling withbleeding for a long period of
time and had sort of lost asense of community, been more or
less shunned by communitybecause of that ongoing
situation. Jesus stopped andtalked to her. He was present
with her. So that kind ofpresence, if I want to follow

(08:59):
the path of Jesus myself, I needto begin in a grounded space,
and then when I am with aperson, even as hard as it might
be to be present because ourmind wants wants to race off in
other directions perhaps, wekeep practicing being where we
are, being in the moment. It'snot gonna happen immediately.

(09:20):
It takes practice, but it's thekind of practice we're doing. We
practice being present, beingwhere we are. No matter where
you go, there you are. And if wecould be like that, then we
could really be with ourfriends, our family, with the
people we meet. People weencounter would be less about

(09:46):
labeling them by any number ofcriteria that we tend to label
one another with, and it wouldsimply be an encounter with
another, and we might find asense of connection there.
One of the last things I wouldsay that Jesus practiced over

(10:06):
and over again and sort ofmodeled for us of who Alaha
might be, who God might be, is aGod of abundance. Now when we
think of abundance, we think ofa lot, a stuff, more, whatever
is more than what we have rightnow, that might be abundance.

(10:27):
But what would it look like torecognize abundance in what we
already have? Not what we canacquire later on or what we are
acquiring even in the moment,but what would it look like to
practice abundance right now, torecognize that I have this

(10:48):
moment, and in this moment thatI'm talking to you, my heart is
beating. I'm breathing.
I'm here. Here I am. This momentmakes for an abundance. I have
enough and enough is in itselfan abundance. Now, maybe not

(11:12):
everyone in the world hasabundance.
Not everyone in the world hasenough, but God operates from a
place of abundance Rather thantrying to hoard things to
myself, whether it's my time orstuff I've accumulated, other
kinds of things, I believe themodel that Jesus had was one of

(11:37):
of living from a place ofabundance. What I have is
enough. I mean, look at Jesus.You could say he's a first
century guy, and he's unique,and he's out of the mainstream,
but I think this is the kind ofpath he wanted to model for us
and it was one where he traveledlight. Most of us cannot travel

(11:59):
quite as light as Jesus traveledwhich is pretty much is, you
know, the clothes on his back iswhat we get the sense that Jesus
traveled with.
And then with some companions,but not a lot of things. Maybe
we have to have a few morethings than that, but what would

(12:19):
it look like for each of us? Iask myself this regularly, what
would it look like for me totravel light, to recognize and
have abundance with a lot lessthan I really may want, but
certainly enough that I need.So, to recap. I may have

(12:44):
oversimplified it in some ways,but for me, I am called, we are
called to follow a path.
For me, I try to model my pathafter Jesus. I don't elevate him
to such a high level that Ican't follow him. That he is so
high above me that all he wantsme to do is be devoted to him or

(13:07):
simply believe in him. What hewants from me, why he taught a
path, is so that I would groundmyself and bring myself into
tune with God, that I wouldlearn to be present wherever I,
am, that I would learn torecognize what enough truly is

(13:27):
in my life and that I haveabundance so often, so much more
often than I need, instead ofalways thinking I don't have
enough. So for me those areplaces to begin the path of
Jesus.
It's an important path for me.Maybe you have another path. I m
always interested to hear fromother people about their path.

(13:48):
But for me, the path of Jesusfollowing in many ways the
church has been my mother, hasbeen the one who has mothered me
into this world. And so knowingthat is to find that the path of
Jesus is the way for me.

(14:09):
Remember always whatever pathyou're on, you are infinitely
precious and unconditionallyloved for the gift you already
are. And until the next time Iwish you all the best.