The Long and Winding Road

As we made our journey to Minnesota and back, there was a lot of time for reflection. Denise was reading and would share insights from the books that we are both supposed to have read before our Columbia Presbyterian Theological Seminary class at Montreat the week before Palm Sunday and Holy Week. We have also been listening to inspirational and insightful music/poetry from Christine Valters Paintner and our friends at Abbey of the Arts (Abbey Shop) along with the deeply touching music of Alana Levandoski (Alana’s website).

As I began reflecting on tonight’s blog, the Beatles song, The Long and Winding Road (YouTube link) popped into my head. As we begin the second week of our Sabbath rest, some may wonder where this journey will lead us. If you aren’t certain, you aren’t alone! We don’t know the specifics of that journey, only that we are accompanied by some amazing friends, some of whom are mentioned above. Of course my spiritual mentor and brother, Thomas Merton is a part of that cloud of witnesses. Merton shared the following from his journal entry on February 14, 1953: A Search for Solitude: Pursuing the Monk’s True Life, The Journals of Thomas Merton, Volume 3: 1952-1960.

For, of all men, the solitary knows least where he is going, and yet he is more sure, for there is one thing he cannot doubt: he travels where God is leading him. That is precisely why he doesn’t know the way. And that too is why, to most other men, the way is something of a scandal.

Thank you, dear reader, for accompanying us on this journey of spiritual renewal and discovery.