My husband and I just moved in to our first home. We've been here about five or six weeks now and things are starting to settle in place. I've been fortunate enough to have some vacation days recently and I found myself diving into boxes of photos the other day. These photos are from everything. Family vacations, mission trips, college friends, girl scouts, youth group, personal travels, you name it. So many photos. So many experiences. I swam through the piles of pictures and the ocean of memories, names, faces, stories, feelings. Evidence of a journey, many journeys really.
It took me forever to figure out what to title this blog. The last time I did something like this was my "Hola Desde Maracaibo" letters during the early 2000's. This, was a bit more challenging. How to find the right phrase?
"Even is There is No Fixed Place" is the title of the last entry in a little book of journal entries titled "Letters to Jesus" by Juan Marcos Rivera. (it has been translated into English). I was given this book by some colleauges when I was first appointed as a Missionary in 2002. Juan Marcos Rivera had been a missionary years before, in the same place where I was to begin serving soon.
I was also on the path towards Ordination as a Pastor and Teacher in the United Church of Christ.
At my ordination service in 2003, I asked that this entry be read. It says so much about my understanding of the Gospel and of Life. (then, and even moreso now)
Life, as my photos can attest, has been a journey of one place to the next for me. In search of something always, perhaps.
Here is an excerpt: (and the inspiration for this blog)
"I prefer the gospel of the road, with all its intersections and turns. It is the road that has rest stops so that one can admire the landscape in moments of reflection. It is the road along which travel living people, who sometimes leave things, indicating their presence. It is the road that is made by walking. It is the road that you travel, even if there is no fixed stopping place. I prefer the gospel that guides me to repentance and to faith, that transforms my life and places me in a relationship with my brothers and sisters, that lets me feel their own condition as unemployed, that lets me accept the rebelliousness of their children, daily exposed to vice and crime. I prefer the gospel that allows me to seek the things on high, and to notice the broken roof on my neighbor's house, to notice that others need bread and that their children cannot go to school. I prefer the gospel that engages me in communion with the one who does not know you, and who is exposed to the rigors of a life lacking peace and justice. I prefer the gospel that discovers that hell is not the destiny of our creation. Help me, live the gospel that redeems, that consoles, that guarantees abundant life in you and for you. I want to live the life that endures, both in time and eternity. And, as God lives, I shall one day be able to do so. Until then, we'll see each other around, Lord, on the road." - p. 126-127 "Where Are You Taking Me?" in Letters to Jesus by Juan Marcos Rivera. c. 1990,
- Laura Blanco
