Dcn Susan Erickson

Dear Siblings in Christ,

I read an article recently about the over-use of “journey” as a metaphor. It seems as if everyone these days is on a figurative journey of some kind or other: a journey of self-discovery, a journey of sobriety, of weight-loss, of improvement in one’s backstroke, of learning to grill the perfect steak.

In short, our culture has freighted the idea of a journey with so many meanings that it has tipped into the trivial, or simply into meaninglessness.

Psalm 25, which is appointed for Morning Prayer today, uses a more modest metaphor. Rather than imagining a journey, with its aura (and, possibly, its expectations) of epic struggle and triumph, the Psalmist repeatedly talks of “paths” or “ways.”

“Make me to know your ways, O LORD;/teach me your paths./Lead me in your truth, and teach me … .”  (v. 4-5) “Good and upright is the LORD;/therefore he instructs sinners in the/way.” (v. 8) “Who are they that fear the LORD?//He will teach them the way that they/should choose.” (v. 11)

The Psalmist isn’t the hero of the journey. Rather, he looks to God to lead him in “the way that [he] should choose” (v. 2) It is God who provides instruction and even “friendship.” (v. 14) Instead of setting out on an intrepid adventure towards [fill in your end-goal here], the Psalmist is content to say: “for you I wait all day long.” (v. 5)

What I read in Psalm 25, then, is that I am not the hero of my own, quasi-cinematic journey with my own ETA. Instead, I need to practice waiting on God and trusting in his “goodness and uprightness.”

And the Psalm also seems to suggest that there is no one journey scripted for me but rather multiple paths; and “[a]ll the paths of the LORD are steadfast/love and faithfulness,/for those who keep his covenant and/his decrees.” (v. 10)

Walking in God’s paths requires discipline, patience and, above all, humility. But what a gift not to have to play the starring role!

Faithfully,

—Dcn Susan