02.28.08
Traveling Light
Dear Friends:
I’m soon to head from Africa, Sierra Leone to be exact, and I’m packing some things to bring along. What does one take? As I do this, I’m reminded of what one really needs in order to be. I’m reminded of a hymn that says, “This world is not my home, I’m just a passing through.” What do I really need to “pass through”?
I struggle at times with being suffocated by stuff, and I long to unstuff myself. I am going to a country where that issue is mute, as poverty and unemployment ravage the ideas of accumulating stuff. Instead, there is the common yearning for a warm meal, a place to lie down, a school for children to attend, and joy. What is that joy? Perhaps that joy is when I know that I’m an answer for someone’s prayer and I respond, perhaps when I’m seeking to be a pencil in the hand of God, perhaps when I’m seeking to be an instrument of God’s peace, and finally when I am that pencil, that instrument.
As I travel, it reminds me that my spiritual journey calls me to travel light, because where I’m going, all pilgrims do travel light. As I muse over these thoughts of traveling light, and using my resources to be placed in God’s hands, it’s then that I discover that for which I hunger the most: joy. Contentment, peace of mind, these are the wonderful gifts of life, and I’ve learned that I find them and receive them regularly when I’m unstuffed by stuff, when I’m traveling light, and when I’m seeking to be a pencil in the hand of God. God’s blessing to you. When I come back, stop by, the light will be on, and the coffee will be fresh. Joy to you, my friend.
Pastor Don
