Finding Our Way

By Rev. Ethan Brown

Pastor and Minister of Care & Discipleship

 
I love the night sky in the mountains. This week I am up in Montreat, North Carolina, on a retreat for leaders of children, youth, and young adult ministry. And even as I seek new connections and partnerships for our future ministry, I am struck by the beauty of this place.  Especially the night sky. The crisp, cool air and lack of lights reveal a cascade of stars to which I am normally blind. Sometimes to remember the way the world truly is, we have to leave our well-worn paths. We have to look away from that which is demanding our attention, these lights in our life—both those of distractions and the good and necessary—to see the beauty of the stars, and perhaps to be guided by them. Whether the Polynesians over Pacific waters or caravans in the desert, for millennia the stars have helped travelers find their place in the world as they journeyed to something new. 
Beginning this Wednesday, February 14, we will start the journey of Lent. From the moment we are marked by the ashes of our mortality till sunrise breaks through the darkness of Easter morning, we are on a journey. Christ is headed for the cross, but where are we going? Each Sunday during Lent we will consider stories of God’s faithfulness as guiding stars helping us to travel new paths. On Wednesdays we will lean into the practice of Sabbath, a reminder that the world turns by the faithfulness of God and not our own efforts. What journey are you being called into this season? Where do you need to be reminded of God’s faithfulness? What might this season mean for the life of Highland Hills?
Back in January, as Caitlin and I rested in the silence of a monastery, we saw a picture of a Thomas Merton quote that was a comfort for us as we tried to plan for a new year.  May this quote carry us into the journey of Lent and may stars in the darkness guide us on the way.

“My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.” 

- Thomas Merton, Thoughts in Solitude