One
of the most common metaphors for life is that of a journey. Seeing one's life as a journey is as old as human
consciousness. For a person who sees
himself as a "seeker", that symbol of journey is very powerful and
full of context.
Last
week I turned the page of a travel book written by an Irish woman in 1963
(every page I turn in a book is a metaphorical journey). She observed that when most people take a
journey, they do so from the perspective of "going away from". From the outset, these people travel with a
pervading sense of anxiety and foreignness, leaving all that is familiar behind
- strangers in a strange land, as the Exodus story frames it. The author contrasts that outlook with a
very few who journey from the perspective of "going towards," where there is a sense of being drawn
forward, an expectation of promise and discovery.
Last
week I listened to readings from the journals of black people who suffered
enslavement and its evils. Those
ancestral stories, read aloud by descendants several generations removed, were
also about journeys of going away from and going towards. There was contrast between the despair of
capture, transportation and sale into slavery, and the hope of new life
following escape through the Underground Railroad.
I'm
at the point on my own journey that I pay attention to coincidence. I think to myself, "Okay, God - what are
you trying to tell me about my own journey?
Is this a teaching moment?"
Of
course we are all on a journey of some sort - it's called life. We have choices, decisions, challenges and
victories to experience. It strikes me
that one of the decisions I have to make is whether my journey will be one of
"going away" or one of "going towards".
When
the disciple Thomas questions Jesus (John 14:6), Jesus responds, "I am the
way, the truth and the life." Jesus
understands that his disciples are uncertain and he speaks to reassure them
about the outward and (most importantly) the inward journey they will make if
they follow in his footsteps towards a life in God.
I
believe those reassuring words are meant for me as much as Thomas. At its core, it is a message of encouragement
to live my life as a journey of "going towards." As much as possible, my journey has to be
full of the here and now, living fully in the present. My future - that's a source for hope, but only
in the sense that it draws me towards the next moment of now. And
the past...well, it's over and done with and I need to move beyond it.
It
all sounds so simple, but I know it's a difficult journey to make. Everyday I'm faced with the choice between hope
and despair and my stories reflect the pull of those contrasting outlooks. God being my helper, I'll keep seeking the
Way.
<><Pat
