One of my all-time favorite stories is the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings. I first read the books when I was 13 and going to high school in Yorkshire, England. I would walk home from the school bus stop after dark, in the rain and then curling up to read in the evenings, imagining the world of Middle Earth. The Road motif that Tolkien uses (as expressed by Bilbo in the above quote) is the blending of life with the presence and the will of God. In this sense Tolkien echos St Paul who says there is "one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, one God who is Father of all." (Eph 4:5-6)
Having spending the past 9 days on "the Road", first at Lourdes and then walking the camino to Saint Jean Pied de Port, I have come back to the metaphor that the journey that we take in life is like a camino. The Lord invites us to walk with Him, but He allows us to walk alone if we choose to. One of the spiritual disciplines that we need is that of detachment, that I am detached from particular outcomes and open to where the Lord needs me to be or to whom the Lord needs me to be present to. This is part of the adventure of life. We have some idea of where we are going, but we are not God, we do not control everything and so we need to be docile to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. From day to day we did not know the specifics of the path that we would take, who we would meet or where we would lay our heads that night,. We might lose our way, be given a shortcut, meet an atheist, a devout Christian or some fellow pilgrims. We might climb hills in the heat, or cold or rain. We might sleep in a bright, cheery place or a poorly maintained farmhouse. At the end of the day, God would provide and His provision would be enough. When morning comes on the morrow, we again shoulder the burden of our packs and walk further along the way.
The same is true in the everyday rhythms of life. Raising children, working a career, serving in a ministry are all invitations from God to us to encounter His love, in the people we meet, the struggles we endure and the places we visit. All of these help to form us for the next stage of the journey. This is where the discipline of a life of prayer helps us to keep our eyes focused on God''s plan for us, and makes it easier to accept the difficulties we find along the way - be they people, places or limitations within ourselves.
Lord, I ask for the grace that I may make you ever more my constant companion as I journey down the road, with you to all whom we encounter. Shape me through the experiences of my life as we take this journey today together to be your servant and an instrument of your love to others. Amen
