I Will Lead Them Home…

Last year, Denise and I attended separate Contemplative Retreats in Cullman, Alabama as a part of our Certificate in Christian Spiritual Formation course through Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia. When I first arrived at St Bernard’s Monastery and Abbey I found myself in unfamiliar territory. Denise was at another Monastery in Cullman and so I found myself wandering around a bit getting my bearings. Before too long, I was meeting with my fellow retreat attendees and our leaders. Soon it began to feel like I did belong at St Bernard’s.  By the end of the retreat, I felt like I had found a spiritual home of sorts. Denise and I would stop by St Bernard’s for a visit on our way to visit her parents in Florence, Alabama and we both enjoyed spending time in this holy place.

The above picture was from a walk I took around the grounds of the Monastery during some free time. As I wandered through the wooded trail, I felt a sense of comfort and security. As I look now at how the trail revealed itself, I am reminded of Robert Frost’s poem, “The Road Not Taken”.

Two roads diverge in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.j

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I —

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

This road somehow symbolizes the journey I was on at the time. I was in the midst of the search for a new call and this wooded trail was a place of contemplation. I was embarking on a new journey and not quite sure where Denise and I would end up. Yet in that holy place, I felt safe and secure. Somehow, I knew that God would lead me down the path that I was supposed to go. This retreat was in early May of 2014. In June of 2015, I accepted the call to Presbyterian Community Church of the Rockies. I had no idea that the pathway we were walking down, trusting in the Lord, would lead to Estes Park, Colorado. It wasn’t the familiar pathway that Denise and I knew so well as a couple and in our own individual lives. Yet in the midst of the search process we were confident that the path, although different from any we were familiar with, would be where God wanted us to be. We simply had to trust and believe and keep our hearts open to hear God’s call.

The reading from Jeremiah for the twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost speaks to me in a similar way. Jeremiah was speaking to the people who were in exile. They were wondering about the pathway they were on. Would there be a hope for their future? Or was exile the end of the trail for them. In Chapters 30 and 31, Jeremiah was sharing God’s promise for deliverance and hope for restoration with the people. All was not lost. They would be led back home. “I will bring them from the north and from the distant corners of the earth. I will not forget the blind and lame, the expectant mothers and women in labor. A great company will return! Tears of joy will stream down their faces, and I will lead them home with great care. They will walk beside quiet streams and on smooth paths where they will not stumble.” (Jeremiah 31:8-9, NLT)

That was God’s promise for the people in Exile. That is God’s promise for us today. No matter where we may find ourselves on the journey, God will lead us home. I attended my first meeting of the Presbytery of Plains and Peaks yesterday and today. This was my first presbytery meeting since attending my last meeting of Florida Presbytery in June. While I met many new people at the meeting and observed presbytery business conducted in a different setting, Denise and I felt like were were at home. I was nominated to be on the Highlands Presbyterian Camp and Retreat Center Committee and Denise will likely be nominated to be on a committee in the coming weeks. It is new and yet we feel like we are at home. We are both on a road that we never would have dreamed we would be on a year ago. God is definitely leading us and we are at home in our new surroundings.

Dear reader, perhaps you are on a journey yourself. Perhaps you are wondering just what God has in store for you. Just as Robert Frost’s poem reminds you to not be afraid to take a chance on a new path, so too does the passage from Jeremiah. I am thinking of many people I know who are on a journey where they are not sure exactly what is going to happen or how it is going to turn out.  Believe me, God will guide your steps. Even when you aren’t sure what is ahead of you or where the road is leading… simply believe. Tears of joy will stream down your face and God will lead you home with great care!