A Heartfelt Plea

I've been going through lots of old notebooks and school papers, deciding what to toss and what to keep as I pack our apartment for the move, and came across these timely words from Leo Tolstoy. I believe it was originally quoted in a book about Christians in the arts, for a paper I did on the necessity of poetic language for the expression of our faith and deepening our relationship with God:

"Attack me, I do this myself, but attack me rather than the path I follow and which I point out to anyone who asks me where I think it lies. If I know the way home and am walking along it drunkenly, is it any less the right way because I am staggering from side to side! If it is not the right way, then show me another way; but it I stagger and lose the way, you must help me, you must keep me on the true path, just as I am ready to support you. Do not mislead me, do not be glad that I have got lost, do not shout out joyfully: 'Look at him! He said he was going home, but there he is crawling into a bag!' No, do not gloat, but give me your help and support."

So say we all.