We All Want Answers

It is so tempting to want the answers before we begin the journey. We like to know our way. We like to have maps. We like to have guides. But we are more like a breathing puzzle, a living bag of pieces, and each day shows us what a piece or two is for, where it might go, how it might fit. Over time, a picture starts to emerge by which we begin to understand our place in the world. —Mark Nepo, The Book of Awakening

We all want answers… don’t we? We want to plan things, make lists, think of every detail that might come up. We want to know how things will unfold, how we will pay for it, how long it will take. It sounds almost trite to say it, but we are too often focused on the destination at the expense of the journey. The best advice I ever got when stepping out on my journey to ministry was, “Take the next step, do the next thing.”

I spend a good bit of my time talking with people who are feeling called to a life of service. This past week in Virginia Beach for Unity’s Eastern Region conference, I had multiple conversations with people studying the “how” of things. Don’t get me wrong, we all do it. My friends will smile (or laugh out loud) and tell you I do it. What Mark’s quote has stirred for me though is relevant to us all… not just to those called to a life of ministry.

How often do we miss what might be by clutching at what we can see? How often do we settle for a lesser experience because we can see how it might happen? The question that has stayed with me this week is–How can I live in the realm of the possible? What can I let go of, what gets in my way? Plans, lists, need to know… how? Can I step out in faith to do the next thing? And like Mark says, live as a breathing puzzle-open to the piece each new day brings.