I had a good conversation yesterday with my former sister in law. That sounds so cold….former. Just because she is divorced from my brother doesn’t mean that we don’t still have a relationship. I’m glad of that. She is in the process of going to seminary in the Fall with the intention of becoming an Episcopal priest. She called me for some advice. She’s in the hardest place right now, I’m remembering from my own experience of leaving home for a new life…that in-between time wherein one can see what one has known as the world passing away before one’s eyes, and then the certainty that what’s next is unknown. It’s like dying in a way.
She had just been to the Commission on Ministry of the diocese and they had given her some disturbing news. Because of the financial plight of the diocese they simply can’t give her as much financial support that she had anticipated. The news brought to the surface her doubts and fears about this proposed new life ahead of her. She told me that she had been stuck on the interstate for over an hour because of a multi car accident. Sitting there at a stump stop she reckoned that her predicament was an apt metaphor for her life situation…just stuck with nowhere to go…and I asked her to tell me more about the metaphor…she asked what I meant…and I said well what finally happened out there on the interstate, and she said that eventually and all of a sudden, out of nowhere, traffic started moving and she found herself on her way home. Trust your metaphor, I said.
Is it possible that the roadblocks and obstacles we face inevitably on our life journey end up a vital part of our formation?….the purifying fire the ancient scribes call it….See I am making all things new says a voice from heaven…and the old must die, and sometimes hard; but the promise is that new life comes on the wings of eagles, quite without warning; so it is for us to trust the signs of this coming, pay attention to the metaphors around us, outward and visible signs of God’s gracious favor….There comes a point for each and every one of us when we must act as if this grand vision handed down across the generations were true. Trusting and acting as if it were true…that’s my definition of faith…so may my sister in the faith trust her way forward into this life that unfolds before her…the signs graciously pointing the way…and may we as well, trust the way ahead…forever on our journey home.
