THE WAY
“If you can’t see far ahead, go as far as you can see.” The late Ralph Winter often quoted Dawson Trotman, the founder of The Navigators. “Clarity is often overrated,” more than we care to admit, as I once said during a leadership strategy meeting years ago. Rumi, a Sufi mystic, similarly captures, “As you start to walk on the way, the way appears.” Clarity does not precede action; it emerges from action. The most repeated biblical command, “do not fear,” along with the command to “go,” invites us to move, take the first step, feel the air, smell the roses, and face the enemy. What is promised is another imminent immanuel voice, “for I am with you,” providing “the assurances of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
Pilgrimage and clarity rarely go together. In fact, pilgrims undertake the journey to escape suffocating systems of certainty and to open their arms wide, with eyes wide open, to embrace all the turns and twists of life. John O’Donohue’s image of the river “carried by the surprises of its own unfolding” captures the beauty and savagery of pilgrimage. Clarity demands certainty, followed by a sense of control. Here, certainty is based on clarity, and when clarity disappears, bewilderment and insistence set in, causing one to obsess over clarity. The certainty of pilgrims comes from the reality that there is little or no clarity. The only certainty is that I AM WHO I AM is with me. Faith is more about Whom our faith resides in than what. Specifically, faith is about trusting that God is love and good.
Faith is not opposed to questions, doubts, and uncertainties. Faith involves honest wrestling with doubts about God, ourselves, and how the world seems to work. In a faith journey, we are not just encouraged to doubt and question, but we are required to do so.
Our current long liminal season began shortly after I stepped down from leadership on January 1, 2019. We are now well into the sixth year of discerning our next steps in life and ministry. As we started sensing God’s movements and nudges, we began to act. Specifically, we knew that Asia, with Korea at the forefront, was calling us. We took bold and drastic steps to move toward Asia. The only way I believed I would understand God’s calling was to immerse ourselves and discern on the ground, breathing the same air. God poured out gifts on us, including both affirmations and confirmations, along with miracles.
If discerning Asia was our (my wife and I) “walking the way until the way appeared,” then there was me “walking the way” to discover my contribution in Asia. Engagement with the world and for the world (missions) will continue to be part of my contribution, which is not difficult to envision. What required more time and effort from me had to do with walking the way to discover areas I did not know I had to contribute to. Spiritual direction, both individual and group, will be at the center of my service to the world. Hospitality in the context of nature brings me life and thus will complement spiritual direction. The biggest discovery for me was the growing desire that I must write.
We are halfway into our US visit. In about three months, I would like to believe our long liminal season will be over. Perhaps there will be another liminal season open up before us, but we will not worry about that until it arrives. As we started to walk the way, the way appeared for us over time, like fog slowly lifting from the ground, unveiling the brilliance of the sun.