"The younger said to his father, 'Father, I want right now what's coming to me.' "So the father divided the property between them. It wasn't long before the younger son packed his bags and left for a distant country. There, undisciplined and dissipated, he wasted everything he had. After he had gone through all his money, there was a bad famine all through that country and he began to hurt. He signed on with a citizen there who assigned him to his fields to slop the pigs. He was so hungry he would have eaten the corncobs in the pig slop, but no one would give him any. "That brought him to his senses. He said, 'All those farmhands working for my father sit down to three meals a day, and here I am starving to death. I'm going back to my father. I'll say to him, Father, I've sinned against God, I've sinned before you; I don't deserve to be called your son. Take me on as a hired hand.' He got right up and went home to his father. "When he was still a long way off, his father saw him. His heart pounding, he ran out, embraced him, and kissed him." (Luke 15:12-20 MSG)

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The journey to the end of self

A journey everyone must make

At the end lies the rest

In the life of God

Him living through us

When the end of self is reached

And self is done away with

We find the rest, beyond the end of self

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A lot has been said about the prodigal son

He took all that was His

And journeyed to the end of self

When He got to its end, He came to Himself

Himself was back in his Father's love

His naivety and delusion

Well and truly put to rest

As he entered the rest

Beyond the end of self

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Spare a thought for the elder brother

Who is yet to arrive

As he journeys to the end of self

He is still at work to deserve

What he already possessed

So he protests at grace, as He fails to enjoy

All that the Father declared as his

Having not yet reached

The rest beyond the end of self

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There may be some

Who get to the rest

By riding on the experience of others

They arrive at the end

Of the journey to the end of self

Courtesy of another

To submit all they are to God

But too few are those who take this route

Choosing to walk at their expense

To enter the rest beyond the end of self

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I am sure it is possible

To get to the rest

By being translated to the end

Of the journey to the end of self

Without having to walk every step

But rarely the one who truly believes

That self has an end

With out getting there, first hand

To enter the rest

Beyond the end of self

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Well so it was, so it is and so it shall be

Everyone must prove to themselves

That self has an end

Brought there by whatever means

The sooner we get there

The sooner we will return to our senses

To find ourselves in God's love

Him living His life through us

No longer limited by the delusion of self

A life of rest, beyond the end of self

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Selah