Going Against the Current

There was a man floating down stream in a rapid current, along with many others who also floated along. Then one day, he saw a man who was standing up, and struggling against the current to go upstream. He questioned the man why he was doing this. The man told him that he had seen a vision of the Lord of the Mountain and wanted to go see Him, and that the only way to get to the mountain was to go upstream. The man proceeded to tell him about his vision, and how the Lord of the Mountain was their source, but the only way to get to him was to go up to the Mountain of the Lord. The Mountain was also the source from whence they had sprang, as the Lord had made them out of the mountain, and only by returning to that place could they find the Lord, and their happiness. 

The story of this vision compelled the other man to stand up also, and struggle against the current for a time, but as he did this, many who floated by clamored and said, "what are you doing? Don't you know floating downstream is the tradition of our fathers, and that only by following the stream can we arrive to our hoped for destination?" 

Some shouted that the man had a devil that he would stand against the stream, and that "surely they would deny God's will to go against it, for had not the river itself been born out of the Mountain? And had it not come from there, and so is not the destiny of all those in the stream to follow the river to where it leads? Doesn't gravity itself show us that we are to go this way? We do not need to go to the Mountain, we are following the will of the Mountain and it's Lord by floating downstream, and surely did the Lord of the Mountain not promise he would come to us - and bring the mountain again? We are waiting on the Lord of the Mountain, he is not waiting on us to go to him." 

And soon the man began to question the validity of the vision, and began to wonder within himself, "how can all these people be wrong?" And the struggle against the current began to wear at him, and the many voices of the people and sound of the rushing water began to cut him off from hearing what the man who stood was saying, and soon he could feel himself growing tired, and finally he slipped on a small rock and stumbled and fell into the water again, and found himself floating downstream, and oh, how wonderful it felt to go with the flow again. The lack of resistance, and easiness of the way to float downstream in and of itself became a kind of testimony for he no longer had to struggle and resist, and the feeling of no longer having to contend with the others who told him he was wrong, who now welcomed him back with open arms was a tremendous relief to him. 

And so he floated downstream, and where would be the destination of this man? He would end up in the vast sea of humanity who would not struggle or give up their tradition and ease of way to find the Lord of the Mountain.