Tuesday, July 13

For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.
—Hebrews 13:14

Sometimes we find that what feeds our soul can slowly change. We no longer respond to what nurtured us spiritually in the past. Our soul seems to need of something different, something beyond what we have done before. We seem to be moving on to another stage, with no defined resting place, no place to call home.

Truly, at the deepest level we are pilgrims, wayfarers. When we attempt to settle in one place psychically, spiritually or even physically, we can find our lives deadened or our spirits disappointed. When we try to become "permanent," we lose vitality, energy, future direction. We stagnate and appear dead in the midst of life. When we look for happiness in the wrong place, we find our inner self disappointed because what we had hoped for, expected, assumed would be so, is not so.

But, by being intentionally mindful pilgrims, we can find what needs to be found in each place. Embracing a pilgrim stance gives our attitude a charged energy. Our antennae are out with curiosity. We are attentive to our immediate surroundings and what can be learned from them. When the learning has been completed, we are inwardly free to detach and move on in gratitude for what occurred in that particular place.

Don't sit still, don't settle in, don't hunker down. You'll miss the movement of life.

Give me courage, Lord, to take new steps, to tread new paths, to enter the unknown territory. There in the unfamiliar and fearful place, let me experience the newness of You.

These Signposts originally appeared on explorefaith in 2003.