One of the words I catch myself using all the time is “journey.” 
Whether it’s in the context of “faith is a journey” or “life is a journey.”
Or “Here’s some of what our Discipleship Class experienced on their faith journeys over these past eight months.” 
Yes, it’s a word I use often.  So often, in fact, that I sometimes worry it’s a word I overuse!

When you read and write, preach and pray as part of your job, there are times when you perhaps hyperfocus on the words you are sharing. 
Or at least I do. 
After all, our words can wound and our words can heal.
Even if a hard truth needs shared, can we share that hard truth in a loving way?
Christians are called to speak the truth in love after all. 

The concept of “faith journeys” is so important that it does seem worthwhile to explore often.  Charles Foster wrote a book called The Sacred Journey where he explored the history of pilgrimage and how to approach each day as a pilgrimage, a sacred journey.  Foster reflects, “The sort of new eyes God gives aren’t just, or even mainly, designed for seeing buds you would previously have missed or the nuances of your relationship with a particular pile of rocks.  They are designed to let you see Jesus in the world, and we’re given some pretty emphatic clues about where to look.  If you’re Christian and you have lost your first Love, a pilgrimage can help you fall in love again, only better and more fully, for the best is always yet to be.  It can give you the ability to love as a child loves—a love without cynicism, suspicion, or envy.”* 

Sometimes journeys take us to faraway places. 
Sometimes journeys are about the journey within. 
The hardest journey of all may just be the journey from our heads to our hearts. 

Just some thoughts to share this week, as our church family celebrated the faith journeys of some of our young people.  Congratulations again, Charlie, Karah, Ben, Kolby, and Rae! 

Love,
Pastor Lauren 

*Charles Foster, The Sacred Journey, pg. 146.

Photos by Rich Hosford.

Thursday Thoughts 5/9/24