The Voyage To The Unknown

In fourteen hundred and ninety two.
Columbus sailed the ocean blue.
He had three ships and left from Spain;
He sailed through sunshine, wind and rain.

And so the poem by Jean Marzollo goes. It’s a glamourous and fantastical poem about what was a dangerous and hastily threw together journey. I was listening to a sermon by my favourite online preacher when he spoke of Christopher Columbus. He said…..

            When he set out, he didn’t know where he was going.
            When he got there, he didn’t know where he was.
            When he got home, he didn’t know where he’d been.

Our “faith journey” as a Christian is very much like that. Everything starts out at some point in our lives. And we do the things that we do to join in with other Christians and churches. But most of the time our journey leads us on twists, turns and detours that we couldn’t even think about.

I have mentioned in several of my blogs about times when God would take me into places that I wouldn’t have thought about going to myself. And also how He brought me out from places that I should never have really ended up in the first place.

But, when I started out on this faith-journey, little did I know that I would be facing a lot of unknowns. And I would fall head first into a lot of experiences that I never ever thought would have happened. But also, I have made a large amount of friends that I never would have met and learned a lot of God’s revelations that I would never have known if I had continued on my normal life.

Like Columbus, those first few years in church I didn’t really know what I was doing. I was brought up Presbyterian, so to end up in a lively Pentecostal church was entirely new to me.

And, like Columbus, while I was there I didn’t really know what to do. No Westminster Catechism or anything like that here. But I joined in as best I could. I made a large number of great friends and learned a whole new side of the faith-life and theological outlooks while I was there.

Now as I sit and ponder back over my faith-journey I can truly say that, like Columbus, I really don’t know how it all happened. There is no easily discernable path. There are no wayposts to say “You Were Here”. I have made many friendships and acquaintances that I can look back on. But they also have been on their own faith-journey and have ended up in places they never thought they would be either.

But in all of this journey my head and heart really only wanted one thing. That is to know God more. Notwithstanding life experiences that get in the way and distract us I can look back and see some of the times and places where God has had His hand guiding me.

Columbus set sail to find a westward route toward the spicelands of India and ended up discovering the great continents of the Americas. (Did you know that America is named after one of his other sea captains, Amerigo Vespucci?) And when he returned home he had a whole different story to tell to the Courts of the King and Queen of Spain who financed the voyage.

And I sit here today writing these blogs. And I can most certainly assure you, they are a whole other different story than the one I thought I would tell at the beginning of my journey.

And I can truly thank God for it. I don’t think I would have wanted it any other way.

Proverbs ch3 (5)Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; (6)In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.

Ephesians ch2 (8)For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, (9)not of works, lest anyone should boast. (10)For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

My God and I will go for aye together,
We'll walk and talk as good friends should and do;
This earth will pass, and with it common trifles,
But God and I will go unendingly.

Austris A. Wihtol


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Comments

Anonymous said…
What a fantastic journey lies ahead and the history before is now part of His Story for us, a remarkable time to be had with the Lord, the same yesterday, today and forevermore
6 February 2024 at 21:34
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