Swept.
It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.
~ JRR Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings
journey, week 1
Adventures are funny things. On one hand, they can stir a deep sense of aliveness in our souls and call us out of complacency toward grander, richer possibilities. On the other, we can sympathize when Bilbo says, “We are plain quiet folk and have no use for adventures. Nasty disturbing uncomfortable things! Make you late for dinner!”
The photo above was taken several weeks ago as my friend Kevin and I packed across my favorite stretch of the Appalachian Trail at Roan Mountain. The first day, the sun was bright and even on the snowy trail, we were quite warm. Once the sun dropped over the western ridge, however, it got cold fast and we had to light our camp stoves with numb fingers. There was essentially no wood for a campfire, and we piled into sleeping bags just after dark.
We lay listening to coyotes howl until the wind picked up and whipped our tents furiously all night. My blowup mattress went flat every hour so I would roll off, blow it back up, and dose briefly before I woke again. The arctic blast continued into the morning, so we broke camp immediately and made our way a couple miles to wooded cover for coffee and breakfast. The trail was sheet-ice in places, but eventually the sun came back out to showcase stretches of epic, wild beauty.
There are reasons to stay home. Not all of that trek felt fun. But it did make me feel alive in ways I don’t feel at home. And the sense of accomplishment, especially through adversity, was deeply satisfying. So whether your adventures are grand or simple, I believe each of us faces our own choices about whether to reach for new things, new places, new experiences… or play it safe(r) with the status quo. Then, beyond the realm of choice, life comes to us on its own terms with unexpected consolations and desolations, invitations and intimidations. And that’s just the external journey.
The internal journey is also layered with grand opportunities and daunting threats—and this will be our focus throughout 2024. We’ll be considering what it means to actively choose and engage that journey with expectation and hope. To walk your path consciously, not unconsciously. To find the courage to push past “cold fingers” and catch your breath with majestic vistas of the inner landscape. This is the journey home. Home to your True Self, the Self you are destined by God to become. Could there be anything more meaningful than loading our packs, choosing some journey-partners, and embarking on this largely-unknown trail?
Long. The older we get, the shorter it seems, but it’s long enough. We are making legitimate progress toward a destination we will not fully reach in this lifetime. But every step forward matters… to us, to God, and to our world at large.
Journey. The journey motif implies purpose, incentive, and challenge. We can look back on the path to this point, here at the birthing of 2024, and acknowledge great joys and great losses. We don’t arrive as the same people we were at the start. Which is the point. We are moving, changing, becoming.
Home. And something inside our souls knows that our destination is “home.” Home is where we belong and who we belong with. It’s the place of knowing and being known. And above all, loved. Loved into the most divine version of ourselves. Loved into union with all that is. So gear up! It’s time to get swept onto the trail together.
growing your soul
What belongs in your “pack” this year? Who is meant to be your closest traveling companion? Where is the compass pointing?
serving our world
How will your community be better served by you becoming a truer You this year? Go ahead, name something.
takeaway
Get swept up.