When God Gives a Journey

Looking up at tallllllll trees in Muir Woods.

Most of January, I looked a few weeks out and thought, yeah, I might do an overnight retreat then.  The days would pass, the week would come, and I would find something else that felt more appealing.  This was no big, dramatic plan (or failure to plan); I just knew that I wanted to take some time with the Lord to gain some perspective on the work and life that chugs along these days.  Granted, I did take one day of extended prayer and reading at Prince of Peace monastery, but my soul was still hungry for more.

Even so, I wasn't finding much motivation to go off and be alone-- even as an introvert who likes silence!  Much of my time is spent in intervals of solitude: my own room, my own schedule, my own set of tasks and appointments.  You could say I was kind of holding out on God, as if you say, "YOU make it happen!"

When a friend mentioned she'd be driving up to San Francisco, something in my mind/ heart/ spirit snapped to attention.  "Wait, San Francisco?  Do you need someone to go with you?  When are you going?"

My calendar was open.  I hemmed and hawed.  I contacted one friend in San Fran, and then another.  People were available.  They could give me a place to stay.  My calendar stayed open.  I found a cheap return flight.  More possibilities of connecting with people surfaced, including reuniting with a college friend I hadn't seen in 5 years.  I decided to go for it.

When God gives a journey, he makes it beautiful and bountiful.

We left at 5 am and drove north, just beating LA's rush hour, diving from the Grapevine's serpentine path into the gusty San Joaquin valley.  My friend napped some, and I prayed with a vengeance as gigantic tumbleweeds bounced toward me.  We had wonderful conversation and music, good questions and the kind of deepening companionship that so often comes on the road.

Some of them really were this big.  Yikes!

She found me a BART station in the East Bay area and I started the next leg of my journey: across the bay to San Francisco!  I found my friends' studio apartment in the Mission district, where they hang out with current and former gang members and kids in juvenile hall as part of InnerCHANGE.

We walked around the neighborhood a good bit in my 3 days there, I saw a secret garden and mural alley, ate a slice of Mission Pie (yummm) and an organic ice cream cone.  I spent time with women and infants, and I made crafts and said prayers.  I joined the group studying "The Story of God" and I watched Avatar while gang members snored (loudly).  I went to sleep and I woke up, and God was all over it.  I walked among redwoods (photo up top) and walked through the Tenderloin.  Prayer, laughter, and deep speaking to deep.

While it feels impossible to fully convey the resplendent moments from those days, I savor them with wonder.  I see God's creation and provision of people, community, and love-- all tailored for me!  Whether talking about things holy or profane, the power of connection struck home (perhaps even more accurately, CREATED home) for me last week.  I caught my flight to Los Angeles, and talked a lot about faith, God and Jesus with a man en route.  He was working on making me a vegan, for his part.  I joined more friends for a CCDA event in L.A.  I saw churches sending and mobilizing their people into communities, and I remembered God's work of joining his people together into one.

In coming out of last week, it seems obvious for me to proclaim how good and generous is our God.  Even as I watched the see-sawing headlines about Egypt day after day, even as I held the infant of a "hard-core" gang youth, even as we checked a van for damage and robbery, I was clear on God's presence and God's love.  People did for me what silence could not-- they served as witnesses and signs, as foretastes of the kingdom coming in all its holy messiness, grit, connectedness, affection, humor, and love.  When God gives a journey, take him up on it.