The End of the Road?

simplicity // 37
the End of the Road?

There are some journeys we wish just wouldn’t end. Perhaps this Lent, you have begun something you’ll feel sad to finish, and you might even resolve to keep going beyond the 40 days.

And then there are other journeys we hope won’t end because we fear what’s waiting for us. I remember as a child, being driven each week to a nearby village for piano lessons. I dreaded them; and as we got in the car, I would mentally mark off every lamp-post and lane and sign we passed, wishing the journey would not reach its conclusion. But all journeys must, of course.

Mustn’t they?

Obviously we can’t begin to imagine how Jesus felt as he neared the finish of his earthly path; the path that was foretold so many centuries before through the prophet Isaiah, who wrote: “In the wilderness, prepare the Way for the Lord... make straight in the desert a highway...” Jesus had come walking out of that wilderness, along that highway, and into our view. Heading this way.

And he walked, and he walked, setting his face like flint, tracing the path finally to its bitter end, being led those last steps to Golgotha “like a lamb to the slaughter”, as Isaiah also prophesied of the suffering servant.

The path took him through the valley of the shadow of death, but it did not - as it still does not - end there, of course. He was to pick up the Way again on the road to Emmaus, and still he carries onwards, walking the path with us that stretches through death and back into life.

“The road to life is narrow, and few find it,” he warned, famously. It’s no Sunday afternoon saunter. But for those who have the courage to look for it, and to follow its leads, this is surely the one, beautiful journey that need never end.


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action point:

Write a letter to yourself, about how you have got on this Lent, what you have learned, the things you have heard and experienced, the things you have left behind. Put it in an envelope, stick a stamp and your address on it, and give it to a trusted friend. Ask them to post it to you in three months time.

What do you wish to write to your (slightly) future self?


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rsvp:

“Just reading the book of John and it springs to mind how Jesus was aware of how he had to work and the essential timing of his actions. He slowly acted in a precise manner like a wine waiting for the right point in time, even though pushed to do differently by the twelve.” George

“I have given up drinking for the time being, but your reflection on wine helped me to appreciate more what I was choosing not to have. I love the way the physical and the so-called ‘spiritual’ are hard to separate!” Jonathan


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May you keep going, right to the end. And beyond.
Go well!

Brian