Tour Guide Jesus

This is after round one of organizing

We’re only two weeks into sabbatical, but I’m noticing God acting as a kind of tour guide. I start each week with a set of stated goals (this week’s were an anniversary day trip, organizing my office/landfill, helping a buddy with a construction project, and canoe-camping with some manly men from church). Some of those goals were realized, but others weren’t. On reflection, tour guide Jesus seems to be leading me away from things that don’t contribute to my renewal, and steering me toward things that do. So here’s some of what tour guide Jesus* showed me this week:

Our anniversary trip was just wonderful – our awesome friend Abby took us on a private tour of the American Visionary Art Museum - all the art there has been produced by self-taught artists, and it was remarkable. Seeing the beautiful, challenging art stoked in me a renewed desire to work on my own art, both visual and musical – it’s a gift that I’ve neglected in recent years, but perhaps tour-guide Jesus was reminding me that it’s still there and deserves cultivation. I hope to make space for that in the coming week…

We also visited Fort McHenry, the site of the battle which inspired Francis Scott Key to pen what became our national anthem. As we explored the history of the fort at different time periods, a park ranger made an interesting point: In “The Star Spangled Banner,” the line “Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave / O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?” is in the form of a question. At various points in our nation’s history, that question has held different meanings. During the Battle of Baltimore in 1814, it was a question of whether the flag would still wave, period. During the Civil War, Key’s grandson who was imprisoned along with other politicians, journalists, and subversives asked whether the flag flying over his unjust imprisonment really did stand for “the free and the brave.”

In our own day, many are asking the question again – what does our flag stand for? Does it truly represent liberty and justice for all? Many good friends have had a very different experience of American freedom and justice, instead experiencing racial discrimination, closed doors to opportunity, and moments of genuine fear. Just the other day, a group of white supremacists slowly drove trucks flying the confederate battle flag through our own and other neighborhoods, revving their engines and shouting racial taunts as they went. I feared for my son’s safety, and was reminded again that he’ll be faced with “many dangers, toils, and snares,” some of which I’ve never had to because I’m white. Here, tour guide Jesus was pointing out a place of corporate sin and generational brokenness, one that I (along with many others) would simply and sinfully rather not face. I have an inkling that Jesus was also showing me something to do with what 1 Peter 2 describes as our being "sojourners and exiles" in this world - it's a connection I need to ponder a bit more...

Around mid-week, I got really sick with a stomach bug, and subsequently had to bail on both my neighbor’s construction project and the manly river camp out. Disaster! What could tour guide Jesus possibly have had in mind? For one, I had the very unpleasant but also meaningful experience of being utterly dependent on my wife, who again showed herself to be truly a “helper suitable for me,” particularly when I was up for hours hugging the toilet. Now that’s a scenario not usually associated with divine revelation, but we’ll chalk it up to “the spirit blowing where it will.” Anyway, Ellie tenderly cared for me when I was at my weakest and most truly pathetic, and in her care I experienced the provision of God.

Another unexpected (and significantly more pleasant) benefit of my sudden illness was getting to spend an unexpected weekend with the fam. By Saturday I felt much improved, so we all spent a few hours at Reservoir Hill Park with the dogs. Giving Theo piggy-back rides, helping him find a walking stick and explore the wide world of gross bugs under rocks was easily the highlight of the past week and served to remind me that sometimes cancelled plans work out for the best. Tour guide Jesus saved the best for last!

Looking Forward in Prayer:

In the coming week, I’m planning to read more of Richard Foster’s Celebration of Discipline, start reading a biography of St. Francis of Assisi, throw my Mom a birthday party (Happy Birthday, Mom!), see the new Mad Max with my Dad (a long-belated Fathers’ Day gift), work on some art, and plan a backpacking trip with my amazing wife. I guess we’ll see how many of those plans tour guide Jesus allows to happen – one way or another, I know he’ll be preparing for me a path that is good.

Father in Heaven, thank you for going before me, guarding behind me, and holding me on my left and right. You know what’s coming this week, because you surround me, lead me, and prepare the path ahead of me. Teach me to navigate well the hiccups and changes to my plans that you allow to crop up.

Jesus, Perfect Son of the Father, you model for me the way I should go, embracing intimate community and restful solitude in necessary turn. Grant me discipline to follow your model of unconditional responsiveness to the Father’s call, and to honor the spiritual rhythms of engagement and disengagement that you provide for our health.

Holy Spirit of the Living God, you are the God who delights in self-disclosure, who opens the door to those who knock, who hides from the proud but reveals to the humble, who calls me friend and empowers us to live lives worthy of the upward call. Please reveal yourself now, and give me ears to hear clearly and to comprehend what you are doing in my own life and in my world.

Amen

* The tour guide Jesus link isn't really descriptive of what I'm talking about here. It's just a video I think is hilarious, and is tangentially related to tour guiding because Jesus often guides us to see our own blind-spots. Anyway, that's my caveat.