“Religion points to that area of human experience where in one way or another man comes upon mystery as a summons to pilgrimage.”

~Frederick Buechner

Dorothy Ranaghan says that Christian spirituality is “a plan, a means, an attempt to find a way of living every day in growing union with God.”  The Christian life is a journey but its destination is not sensual in expression.  There is no physical evidence, no keychains, t-shirts or mugs to prove that one has visited the new self.  Instead, we are mere followers of a light that shines in the distance, beckoning us to take yet another step.  Or, we have been graced with a glimpse, a revelation of the newness that Jesus Christ can provide and we wake each day hoping to see it again in ourselves and in others. “Show me, again. Say it, again,” we pray.

There are no human guides. There is only the Holy Spirit, a voice, a tug, a push that says, “Keep going.”  The terrain is inward and the way is uncomfortable, narrow and limiting.  Some days, the way is mountainous while on others, there seems to be no end to the valley.  Still, there is proof of fellow travelers who have managed to cover great distances, captured in there spiritual postcards: St. Augustine’s The Confessions, the writings of the Desert Fathers and Mothers, St. Francis of Assisi, St. Teresa of Avila, Brother Lawrence, Evelyn Underhill and others.

They have gone before us and there are others travelers on the road but the only thing to be seen is ourselves.  The road is internal and singular though we are treading the same path.  We will look in the mirror daily but the change will not be seen there.  This distance is not measured in miles or even in the number of steps as one never arrives.  And it is not found in wrinkles, graying hair or the acquisition of knowledge no matter how enlightening or esoteric.  Still, there are occasions when one is blessed with an internal knowing and assurance that one has reached a milestone in the journey.

I believe that I have heard a word from the Lord, been pushed in this direction of race-lessness, that I have been challenged to live a life that is aracial.  I don’t know the way that I must go.  I am sometimes gently nudged but more so pushed along, unable to put one foot in front of the other without the Holy Spirit to guide me.  Still, I awaken every morning knowing that this is the journey for me. I want to be grow closer to God and I want to see my new self in Jesus Christ.

Travel Readings

St. Teresa of Avila, The Interior Castle

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

Brother Lawrence, Practicing the Presence of God

Paul Bunyan, Pilgrim’s Progress

Bernhard Christensen, The Inward Pilgrimage: Spiritual Classics from Augustine to Bonhoeffer

Dallas Willard, Hearing God: Developing a Conversational Relationship with God

Thomas a Kempis, The Imitation of Christ

Soren Kierkegaard, Training in Christianity

Jane Kopas, Sacred Identity: Exploring a theology of the person

Catherine Marshall, Meeting God At Every Turn

Thomas Merton, The Inner Experience

Henri Nouwen, In The Name of Jesus

Samuel Proctor, My Moral Odyssey 

Dorothy Ranaghan, As the Spirit Leads us

Cyril C. Richardson, Ed., Early Christian Fathers

Paul Tillich, The New Being