“Are we there yet?”
Anyone who has kids or has been a kid can relate to this feeling - to this question. Right?
The advent theme from the Carmelite tradition for week three is journeying.
I’m glad it isn’t the first or the last theme, but rather right smack in the messy middle.
All journeys seem to be, and I’m gonna say - at least 20 percent too long. There almost always reaches a point where you swear (sometimes literally) that you are never going to get there.
Kids aren’t wrong for asking - they’re just honest.
Needs arise that we need to share. I need to pee. I need a Gravol. I need a snack. I need to stop and rest. Our vulnerabilities get exposed on a journey.
Another thing about journeys: they come loaded with expectations. We have an idea about how long it should take to get there. We think we know who will be there with us through the excursion and who will meet us at the end. We tell ourselves that if we just plan enough, nothing unexpected will happen.
But life teaches us over and over again - journeys are the perfect place for the unexpected. It’s not happy surprises like a stunning view, accidentally winning a lottery or finding a great shortcut that throws us off. No, it’s the darker than I thought, longer than I thought, harder than I thought moments that make it seem impossible. It’s breakthroughs that didn’t happen and breakdowns and breakups that I never thought could happen that make it so hard. Journeys are rooted in the unexpected.
Think about Mary for a moment. The top banana angel comes and invites her on a life-altering journey. And she consents. She says yes because she gets a revelation of where this is going. Read the Magnificat and put aside every thought of a quiet, subservient, little mouse-woman. Hear the woman of valour and virtue, the prophet - the one who will be full of the fire of the Christ child and yet not consumed. Talk about a powerful woman. And while she said yes to the pregnancy and that excitingly nauseous adventure- she had to know that she was also saying yes to being misunderstood. To being accused of things she had never done, never thought, or never said. She says yes, by faith, to something she had never had experienced or wanted for herself. Do you want to know where Jesus learned to say yes to hard things? From the cradle to the cross - look no further than his Mom. Mary made the way for him by walking the journey first.
Mary can show us the way today as well. Mary knew that she needed traveling companions to make it through this journey. When she said yes to her pregnancy, she went straight to Joseph and told him the truth about her life, her body, her spiritual experience and he believed her! Who do we need to tell the truth about our journey? Who’s journey do we need to believe, even if we can’t understand?
Next, she connected with Elizabeth, a few steps ahead of her on a surprise pregnancy journey. Who can you ask to hold space and see what you are going through? Who can you reach out to and say - I’ve been there (or I haven't been there), and I’ll walk with you, we will make it through together.
Maybe you feel like you are all alone. It’s hard to know who to reach out to. Can I remind you of the "prodigal" story? When the son was a long way off - he lifted his head and could see the Father running towards him to meet him on his journey. I picture him running so the son could tangibly feel the love in that dreaded twenty-percent-too-long home stretch. The love had been with the son for the whole journey, even when he couldn’t see it. Now it was made visible, incarnate, present. If you feel alone, I invite you to close your eyes and look down the road with your heart. See LOVE running towards you. You are not alone.
I imagine almost all of you are on a journey that has thrown you for a loop. Honestly - who in the whole world is isn’t right now? Take a moment and just acknowledge the paths you are navigating.
Maybe you kind of expected it, or maybe it’s knocked you for a loop. Maybe both. Perhaps you don’t know how it’s going to resolve, yet. That can be tough. Let’s keep looking out for ways we can give one another a sense of togethering on the journey. A text, a call, a contactless door-drop. Because we have a lot of unknown unknowns ahead of us, and if we are going to flourish and find the way, it’s going to be best if we journey together. Maybe we will even see beautiful vistas and breathtaking views we didn’t anticipate. Anything could happen and it probably will.
Together is better. So let’s virtually link arms and remember this old proverb as we say yes to whatever journey is in front of us:
If you want to get there fast, go alone.
But If you want to far, go together.
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