Saturday in the Fifth Week of Lent
Send out your light and truth, that they may lead me,
and bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling;
Psalm 43:3
As I drive along the river, I look across to the highway that parallels my route. I could have chosen that way and arrived at my destination. However, I am enjoying the stone houses, red barns, fields, creeks, and winding roads that make up this particular course.
Given a choice, I will almost always choose the back way. I like to know my way around and have familiarity with more than one track. And I am almost always open to the adventure of discovering a different way to arrive somewhere. But, somehow in my spiritual life I have narrowed my choices.
For weeks I have been thinking of my Lenten journey as being on a path—one particular path. I have visualized this trail moving off into the distance, not always straight, but always clear. Now today I perceive the limits to this vision.
God does not set one path before me, but opens the way before me, including choices as I go. Nor is this simply a path divided, with one right way and one wrong way. Rather, I am offered ways along the way. I do know that some choices are more life-giving than others, and that I am called to be discerning about God’s work in my life. But if I am to know God as the creator of all, if Jesus is the salvation of the world, then there is no place I can stray that is beyond the reach of God’s loving embrace.
Soon I will turn my steps more directly toward the foot of the cross. I will remind myself that there is more than one way to approach holy death. And that meticulous steps do not bring me to God, but rather following the light and truth.
