2024-06-20 A Meditation on Expedition

Hitting the road carries with it the connotation of some new experiential indulgence, perhaps lapsed duties or perhaps a better sort of spirit sought and indulged, general benevolence and curiosity as to whom and what we see, it is no evasion of proper labors but rather a mighty outlet or engines on full throttle expedition and realization: this, this is my self on the trail, on the road, out and about. And it challenges us, as all mighty shifts in the spirit of the thing do, to hazard a guess, that this is what is meant by the times and the seasons.

Christian expedition is no disavowal of ever going “back there”, “to the homestead”, “you know, where its all easy fare”. Our expedition is involving a circumscribed me-and-my-pack, all things necessary on hand, nothing lacking, self-circumscribed and maintained, with nary a fear only that we find a place to rest our head come wearier hour. For, the judgment they say has come: your expedition is starting out too late, you missed the show. And for those who don’t set out with us, the show is still theirs to own, we believe. Indeed we harbor no ill will nor frustrated resentment to the laggard still in his or her staunch dings. We hope… that their mission will in God’s time be our mission. We hope, that strange unthought of permutations and realities will light up the heavens of our deepest longings or confusions or judgments on others.

To set out is to be mightily endowed, with a missional arrangement and a missional glad heart come day’s end, at the outpost or watering hole, not getting too old for this, but hopeful and Elated, Excited, Gladsome exchange with these our type of people. Only that “type” be magnanimous, generous, of winsome hopeful hearts and minds. We are tuckered out some say, but that only so that you might earn a hearing from our subdued souls. Souls subdued are souls who Listen, who Share, who March to a certain drumbeat that all one day shall hear. Dance move or marching formation, sports playbook or quieter repose, all things in this our little circle of owned personhood and life together.