44/50: Finding Our Way Home
I know this song was seriously overplayed in 2012 but it is still the best song about find our way home with each other that I know.
“I’m going to bring them back from the north;
I will gather them from the ends of the earth.
Among them will be the blind and the disabled,
expectant mothers and those in labor;
a great throng will return here.
With tears of joy they will come;
while they pray, I will bring them back. I will lead them by quiet streams
and on smooth paths so they don’t stumble.”
One of the realities of the last 18 months of living through a pandemic is that I feel closer to the realities of Scripture. Evil rulers? Apocalyptic skies? Pestilence? Principalities and Powers? That is no longer something that happened way back when in ancient Israel, these are daily possibilities. We may not have been taken over by foreign powers and exiled to Assyria, but we’ve been exiled to our homes and kept away from those we love.
These words above from Jeremiah 31 were written as a promise of a return. However, they are not written to triumphant victors, but weak and broken folks who are hobbling home. Hobbling like many of us are these days. Unsure about what home and normalcy and stability even mean anymore.
And here is the promise: That we will find tears of joy, quiet streams and smooth paths. If you haven’t gotten there yet, keep going. Home is a place to be seen, heard and bandaged up. It is a place to be reoriented.
Our church’s mission statement begins with four words: “We are a base camp…” I often think about base camp as a place to go out from, but it is also a place to come home to. It is a place of stories. And to truly listen to another’s story is to be witnessed.
I think this is what we need most right now: to witness one another.
“Where have you been?”
“How have you changed?”
“What did you learn?”
“Where do you want to go now?”
To be witnessed and give witness is the greatest gift we give to each other.
I have always been passionate about friendship. It’s a running joke that I have multiple best friends. For me, witnessing and being witnessed is fuel for the journey of life. It is an endless source of growth, joy, and challenge.
And when we are witnessed, a light shines to help us find our way home.