Dear friends:
Howard Thurman has long been one of my favorite thinkers/writers/theologians. He introduced me to the important notion of working inward in order to work outward. He says the inward journey allows us to “find the sound of the genuine in you.”
Unfortunately, this inward journey often requires facing up to past complicities and failures, those actions and experiences in which we were far less than our best selves. Somehow, the process of moving inward, of squaring up to the brokenness, also provides freedom we need to live from a gracious center.
In our Scripture reading this week, the Psalmist starts, but doesn’t quite finish, the inward journey. He’s in exile, torn from the people and land he loves, and he’s angry about it. He asks all the same questions we ask when in similar circumstances: “Why has this happened to me? How did I find myself in this situation?” It’s the start of his inward journey.
This weekend, we’ll explore the notion of exile, of feeling and being displaced by circumstances larger than ourselves. We’ll also explore how to take an inward journey that brings a sense of home, place and belonging, something we could all use about now.
Warmly,
