Epic Journey

Epic journeys are commonplace in these times.  Thousands have climbed Everest.  Men have walked on the moon.  I know several people who have walked the Appalachian Trail.  A teenage girl from Holland, Laura Decker, sailed around the world by herself, finishing in January of 2012.  I have contemplated a bicycle tour across America.

Why do we humans have a need for such adventures?  We like to test our limits, as Robert Browning wrote,

“Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp,
Or what's a heaven for?”

The Bible has a cautionary tale about human striving and ambition.  As the ancients built the tower of Babel they did so saying, “Let us make a name for ourselves.”  As medieval architects constructed grand edifices intended for the worship of God I suspect there was a thin line between pious devotion and human pride.

I am writing this in early December, contemplating epic journeys, like the one Joseph and Mary took to Bethlehem from Nazareth.  By modern standards it seems like nothing, only 100 miles.  Still, walking from the hills of Galilee to the mountains of Jerusalem would have been an eight to ten day journey, with the threat of robbers along the way.  Every image we have of that journey shows Mary on a donkey, but the scripture mentions no beast of burden.  She walked. 

And when Jesus was born we are told that shepherds came to witness, telling Mary of angelic messengers announcing his birth.  Mary, we are told, pondered these things in her heart.

I wonder if the longest journey we make has nothing to do with mileage or terrain but has more to do with heart-pondering.  The reason we make epic journeys and test the limits probably has less to do with how much are bodies can take as it does with a desire to discover what we’re made of – who we are.  I wonder what Mary and Joseph learned about themselves on that journey to Bethlehem?  As Jesus grew and chose a path that his parents likely would not have chosen for him, that too was a journey he was taking them on.  What did Mary ponder as she witnessed his crucifixion?

The most epic journeys are about self-discovery, journeys that require no special equipment or extraordinary endurance.  The Christmas story invites us to go on an epic journey, to see if we can travel the same road Jesus trod.  It looks so pleasant at the stable entrance, but terrifying at Golgotha.  This epic journey tests our character, in order to discover what we’re made of.  Such a journey might just be our salvation.  After all, isn’t that what we hope our epic journeys are for?    

Life is a journey

While preparing for a course in spirituality, I was reminded of Walter Brueggemann’s description of the various experiences of spiritual pilgrimage:  1) Orientation, 2) Disorientation, and 3) Reorientation.

We begin our journey with some basic idea of where we are headed.  In my spiritual journey that began in childhood.  Learning the Bible stories in a Christian environment, I was oriented toward Christ as the “pioneer and perfecter of [my] faith (Hebrews 12:2).”  My journey was not a straight path as I sometimes ventured off the proven trail from time to time, but I did not stray too far until my late teens.  By that time I began to chafe at the disconnect between the faith of my childhood and my maturing intellect.  I began to question many things I had been taught, eventually casting aside the particularity of Christian spirituality. 

I became disoriented.  I chose no particular spirituality whatsoever.  I dabbled in atheism, but tend to think of myself during that time as agnostic.  I simply wasn’t sure whether there was a God, and for a while I didn’t care.  I had no plan, no direction, and no perception of divine purpose.  That seemed okay for a while, but I eventually grew despondent and morose from my lack of resolve.  I think it is a basic human need to find meaning, and I had none.  I was disoriented.

In my 20’s, I became reoriented through the simple hospitality of people who welcomed me and my wife into a new community.  They were Christians and their loving welcome led me to relook at the spiritual path I had once been on.  And, armed with a new spiritual hunger, I began to read once again those Bible stories of my childhood faith, but with a new capacity to read below the surface, to find that these stories were dealing with the deeper questions of meaning – these stories were leading me to consider what makes life really worth living.  And I became reoriented, and my path in life became clearer.

Since then I have had many periods of disorientation, and have needed to be reoriented time and again.  I see the same pattern in Jesus’ life.  As Reuben Job puts it, “Jesus knew intensely personal communion with God . . . But he was not immune to struggle, disappointment, or the sting of rejection from friend and foe alike (Companions in Christ, Upper Room Books, 2006, p. 19).”  We cannot possibly comprehend the depth of abandonment that Jesus felt at Gethsemane or Golgotha. 

But in Jesus we see someone in whom we can identify regarding our own periods of disorientation, and discover that such times do not have to define our lives.  The resurrection is a witness that the ultimate meaning of our lives is not controlled by the darkness but by light, not by despair but by hope, not by death but by life.

We have all experienced the disillusionment of broken promises, disappointment in people, and discouragement at not being able to obtain our goals.  Perhaps we have despaired of the path we’re on when our ideal vision is not matched by the reality of our experience.  Such periods of disorientation may actually prove helpful, as we then discover something about ourselves and of God.  Sometimes we discover what God is NOT, and that may move us toward a more mature understanding of who God IS.  And in doing so, we gain greater clarity on who we are.  And we are reoriented toward that life which is really worth living.

I pray you are on the path that leads to life.  My path involves carrying a cross.  It’s not easy.  Sometimes it weighs heavy.  But it feels truer with each step I have taken.  I hope you will join me.