Wednesday, April 9
Hiking Through the Void of Lent
“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; they rod and thy staff they comfort me. – Psalm 23:4
Images of hiking have always intrigued me. I have had the privilege of hiking most of the Appalachian Trail. I have hiked two of the many approaches to The Santiago de Compostela, also known as El Camino de Santiago or Way of St James, in Spain. Likewise, there have been hikes in Germany, Ireland, Scotland, New Mexico, Colorado, Louisiana…really, I’ve lost track, so to speak. And the intrigue also comes in other ways. I will never forget John Denver’s The Mountain Song or Fogelberg’s riveting hiking and ecology anthem The Wild Places:
“Can we gaze with the wonder of children
into the deafening night.
Has it gotten so dark
That we cannot remember the light?”
Thus, when Dr. E. Brooks Holifield stepped into the pulpit to bring the word in Cannon Chapel on my first day of seminary at Candler School of Theology and invited us to “put on your backpacks and step into the void,” I was hooked! The invitation came with a warning. He spoke with a prophetic voice. He said that in the coming years we might often ask ourselves “Why in the hell am I here?”
He clarified the invitation that we would be bringing with us stuffed in our backpacks all that we knew and had experienced about God. Our hiking trail would be in to a void, often in deep darkness, no height or depth, no direction of right or left, forward or backward. But he said all along the way there would be points of light where we might find something of interest to pick up and examine, to hold, to recognize its texture, its weight, etc. We would be free to pick it up if we found it important, place it in our backpacks and continue the journey.
He cautioned us that in time we might find our backpacks had become heavy and that it would be important to stop at that time and examine more closely what we had gathered and what we had brought with us. Was the new thing attractive enough to keep? Was the old thing still viable in your belief system. What is it that we know and believe about Jesus? And occasionally, has what we discovered earlier or been taught to be not so necessarily true for us anymore?
At those stops we were given permission to lay down what no longer worked for us; to pick up and take with us what was giving us new enlightenment and the power to believe more fully. We were informed that what we left behind might not always be lost forever. What we already have and believe brings us to the crossroads of what we are and teaches us to discover and seek after what is new as the void of faith presents. And sometimes we pick something back up to carry with us again.
The season of Lent provides us with such a hike through the darkness of the void of self-examination and new-found discovery. But we must open ourselves to what is new and become comfortable with what may change our course in faith. Some thoughts and beliefs will be with you forever. Some thoughts and beliefs must be set aside if your faith is to grow and our personal relationships with God and Jesus and the Spirit are to continue to blossom.
Take this time of lent to lend yourself to study and meditation. Literally take a walk but do so with your soul in hand. What you need is already with you or on the trail but sometimes it will be bumpy and upsetting. Sometimes you must walk with something for a bit to understand its importance to your faith growth. But the journey of faith will always be joyful in the end.
The void of Lent invites your footsteps. It’s like a bad Friday sometimes but Sunday’s coming!
Rev. Larry Norman