On the way

…wanderer there is no road / the road is made by walking

                               Antonio Machado, quoted by Christine Valters Paintner

 

The Christian scriptures speak of a “way” but it is not the path of our expectations.  It is not the 10-step plan for inner peace.  Instead, this way calls us to deeper and more radical trust and to realize that the way is made by walking.  Each step is shaped by listening to how the divine presence calls us forward, the direction we take, the choices we make, and how much control we are willing to yield

                               Christine Valters Paintner, “The Soul’s Slow Ripening”  p. 28

___________________________________

 

Christianity has be called, at times, “the way”

 

But even though God creates a “way in the wilderness”  (Isaiah 43)

And even though “Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low;”

 

and though “the rough ground shall become level,” (Isaiah 40)

 

the way is not a freeway

it is not even a two lane highway wandering through

the Oregon outback

 

it is not a way firmly establish

paved with rules and principles

 

it is a way made by walking

by putting one foot in front of the other

as we seek, moment by moment

to follow Jesus

 

indeed it is the way of following

almost blindly

offering radical trust to this One

who leads us through us day

 

through each moment

through each choice

 

it is never defined

but is always emerging

God’s new thing!!!!

 

this means this way is full of surprises

and full of challenges

 

this means we are taken, often

into dark primeval forests

 

where all we have left is trust

in the One who leads us

in the One who guides and instructs

through those inner promptings of the Holy Spirit

 

and sometimes we get lost

we wander off “to find where demons dwell” (Borning Cry -Jacque Darragh)

 

but the one we follow

seeks and finds us, as if we were lost and foolish sheep

and places our feet back on the way

 

where one thing counts, one thing matters

Love

 

Ah yes, there are rules, of sorts

We love God, and follow

We love ourselves, and claim our rightful place as Sacred Children

We love others, and see them and treat them as Sacred Children too

 

So here is to the journey

Here is to putting one foot in front of the other

Here is to following the One

To following the breadcrumbs of God through

Swamps deep

And forests dark

And mountain jagged

 

Here is to following the way

through the wilderness

we call life

 

______________________________

 

Every valley shall be raised up,

    every mountain and hill made low;

the rough ground shall become level,

    the rugged places a plain.

And the glory of the Lord will be revealed,

    and all people will see it together.  (Isaiah 43: 4,5)