Sunday, 3rd Week: Spiritual Homecoming Yields More Questions Than Answers

“In those days, in their thirst for water, the people grumbled against Moses, saying, "Why did you ever make us leave Egypt? Was it just to have us die here of thirst with our children and our livestock?” – Exodus 17:3

Our pilgrimage to God and our true selves takes us through the land of uncertainty. Old answers become inadequate before life’s present challenges. Even though past ways of looking at ourselves and relating to others are less than freeing, we prefer their familiarity to the vulnerability involved in trusting. The certainty that the past offers seems safer than facing our fears of abandonment or of the unknown. We are caught in the present between the shackled familiarity of the past and the freedom of an unfamiliar future. We do not like living with tension, with uncertainty.

Between a certain past and a future not yet known lies the present moment. Before we can move forward, we need to claim our dependence on certainty and our fear of trust. In such vulnerability, we discover the birth of hope within – a confidence rooted and grounded in God’s goodness and care. We find ourselves thirsting for water that gives life and love deeper and fuller. We are invited to walk in our present condition, with its unknowns and pregnant possibilities – to live the present questions so that deeper truths can emerge.

"Lord, help me to be vulnerable, to trust you, and embrace the present uncertainties in my life."