Epiphany: Walking into the light

In the aftermath of the holidays I’ve been walking. Literally, through the neighborhood on Church Hill, using “Map My Walk” (my first “app”) to chart my way as I go out each morning into the chill dawn of a new day. But also figuratively, as I navigate a major redesign and overhaul of our Richmond Hill web site.

With this web project I’ve come into a wilderness of the unknown, along with a few well-known traveling companions: Fear, Doubt and Uncertainty. Worse than the persistent, annoying comments coming from a 5-year-old in the backseat during a long car trip, these companions have replaced “Are we there yet?” with “You are so lost!” and “You'll never get out of this alive.”

I wonder as I walk. Where will this path take me? Where am I headed?

Ever notice, as we walk through our lives, how often it’s hard to know exactly where we are headed?

Sure, you can tell whether you’re going up or down a hill, and the sun provides helpful clues — is this East? West? North? Or South? These clues are good for telling you where you are. But what about where you are going? What journey are you taking?

Journeying is a process. As I’ve said before, the kind of journey is important. Is this a pilgrimage? Or are you wayfaring? What about transformation? It too is a process, and can share many aspects of both pilgrimage and wayfaring. Perhaps transformation is our destination, and pilgrimage or wayfaring are merely the means by which we reach that final goal.

Journeys are not to be taken without direction, or, without  asking for direction(s). Who we ask and who we listen to can impact the outcome of each and any journey.

I subscribe to the Word of the Day. It is a daily affirmation appearing in my inbox from Gratefulness.org. What showed up on the Winter Solstice last month were these words from scholar and political theorist John Schaar: “The future is not some place we are going, but one we are creating. The paths are not to be found, but made. And the activity of making them changes both the maker and the destination.”

I find this to be helpful advice — what it lacks in clear direction it makes up for in encouragement to press on. Prayer also limits the chatter from my foes in the backseat of my mind. You simply can’t beat a good Celtic blessing like this:

O God, make clear to us each road.
O God, make safe to us each steep;
When we stumble, hold us;
When we fall, lift us up.
When we are hard-pressed with evil, deliver us;
and bring us at last to Your glory.

May God bless and keep you safe as you journey into the light of this new year.

Richard Rumble
January 2013