Meditations on the theme of shepherd, navigator, guide: Lenten journey using “I Am” statements from Gospel of John.
Man is not the lord of beings. Man is the shepherd of Being. — Martin Heidegger
Between every two pines there is a doorway to a new world. — John Muir
The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. — Lao Tzu
A traveller I am, and a navigator, and everyday I discover a new region within my soul. — Khalil Gibran
I’d finally come to understand what it had been: a yearning for a way out, when actually what I had wanted to find was a way in. ― Cheryl Strayed, Wild
It’s not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves. — Sir Edmund Hillary
For the Shepherd Who Is Also the Path the Sun Makes in Daytime (excerpt) — Komal Mathew
… A good shepherd angles a lion’s eye,
traps gazelles in dry fields,
copies a cheetah’s spots one leg at a time.
A good shepherd does not give you stones
when you ask for toast,
does not ask you to work without a burning bush
—but owns a gate, uses a gate,
pulls the weeds and leaves the wheat on an altar of choices.
A good shepherd is a prince of peace
when terror finds its full echo,
a creator in the wild where a predator,
providentially, becomes prey.
Essentials for the journey and styles of leadership:
- 10 Essentials by Appalachian Mountain Club
- 10 Essentials by rei.com
- Styles of leadership by indeed.com
Questions to consider (from Psalm 23 and John 8):
- What helps keep you on track, headed in the preferred direction? How do you best navigate, and what do you experience as obstacles to the Way you want to live?
- What are your essential tools or resources to bring along on a journey? What’s on your packing list?
- Have you ever gotten lost? How did you cope? What did you learn from that experience? What helped and what didn’t you need?
- When do you allow someone else to guide or lead you? When do you allow someone else to drive or pilot? Does the person doing the driving, piloting or navigating decide the route and destination? Who is in control and when does this change?
- Who have been important guides, navigators and shepherds in your life? To whom do you serve as a shepherd, guide, coach, mentor, pilot?
- When do you choose to lead, when do you choose to follow?
- What style of leadership (see guide above) do you implement? To what style do you respond?
I AM Songs (including recommendations from members of JCC community)
- Complex Person by The Pretenders (alt rock)
- I Am What I Am from La Cage aux Folles (Broadway)
- Who Am I Anyway? From Chorus Line performed as a 40th anniversary tribute by Hamilton Cast (Broadway)
- I Am a Rock by Simon & Garfunkel (folk rock)
- People Like Us by Kelly Clarkson (pop?)
- Who I’m Meant to Be by Anthem Lights (ballad)
- Here I Am by Dolly Parton, Sia (country)
- Who I Am Hates Who I’ve Been by ReliantK (indie)
- Ready To Be Myself by David Dunn (Christian)
SHEPHERD & GUIDE Songs
- The Lonely Shepherd by André Rieu & Gheorghe Zamfir (Romanian instrumental)
- The Road Less Traveled by Lauren Alaina (country)
- Shepherd by Amanda Cook (Christian)
- Guide My Feet by Shine Curriculum (Christian spiritual)
- Shepherd by City Alight (Christian)
- Shepherd of my Soul by Rivers & Robots (Christian) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4S8ne-xU0E
- Spirit Lead Me by Michael Ketterer & Influence Music (Christian)
- The One I’m Running To by 7th Time (Christian)
- Wherever I Go by Dan Bremnes (Christian Pop)
I Am: Trail Guide and Navigator
I was no longer following a trail. I was learning to follow myself. ― Aspen Matis
The compass rose is nothing but a star with an infinite number of rays pointing in all directions.It is the one true and perfect symbol of the universe. And it is the one most accurate symbol of you.Spread your arms in an embrace, throw your head back, and prepare to receive and send coordinates of being. For, at last you know—you are the navigator, the captain, and the ship. — Vera Nazarian
I do not believe there is any such sixth sense. A man with a good sense of direction is, to me, quite simply an able pathfinder – a natural navigator – somebody who can find his way by the use of the five senses (sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch – the senses he was born with) developed by the blessing of experience and the use of intelligence. All that pathfinder needs is his senses and knowledge of how to interpret nature’s signs. — Harold Gatty
It was all unknown to me then, as I sat on … on the day I finished my hike. Everything except the fact that I didn’t have to know. That is was enough to trust that what I’d done was true. To understand its meaning without yet being able to say precisely what it was, like all those lines from The Dream of a Common Language that had run through my nights and days. To believe that I didn’t need to reach with my bare hands anymore. To know that seeing the fish beneath the surface of the water was enough. That it was everything. It was my life – like all lives, mysterious and irrevocable and sacred. So very close, so very present, so very belonging to me. How wild it was, to let it be. ― Cheryl Strayed
I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. – Robert Frost
When God walks, he leaves a trail of stardust in his wake. When I walk, I have to leave a trail of breadcrumbs so that I can find my way home. ― Anthony T. Hincks
Worshipping the Lord means giving Him the place that he must have; worshipping the Lord means stating, believing – not only by our words – that He alone truly guides our lives; worshipping the Lord means that we are convinced before Him that He is the only God, the God of our lives, the God of our history. — Pope Francis
The only passion that guides me is for the truth… I look at everything from this point of view. — Che Guevara
As we go about our daily routines, our internal monologue narrates our experience. Our self-talk guides our behavior and influences the way we interact with others. It also plays a major role in how you feel about yourself, other people, and the world in general. — Amy Morin
Reason guides but a small part of man, and the rest obeys feeling, true or false, and passion, good or bad. — Joseph Roux
God is never on the sidelines of His children’s lives. He goes before them. He leads them, guides them, protects and saves them. — Monica Johnson
It’s a great responsibility before God, the judge who guides us, who draws us to truth and good, and in this sense the church must unmask evil, rendering present the goodness of God, rendering present his truth, the truly infinite for which we are thirsty. — Pope Benedict XVI
We were not meant to mask ourselves before our fellow-beings, but to be, through our human forms, true and clear utterances of the spirit within. Since God gave us these bodies, they must have been given us as guides to Him and revealers of Him. — Lucy Larcom
It is thought and feeling which guides the universe, not deeds. — Edgar Cayce
On The Trail
Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
You’re off to great places, today is your day. Your mountain is waiting, so get on your way. — Dr. Seuss
If you face the rest of your life with the spirit you show on the trail, it will have no choice but to yield the same kind of memories and dreams. ― Adrienne Hall
Failure is a signpost on the trail to success. ― Phillip Gary Smith
Carry as little as possible, but choose that little with care. — Earl Shaffer
Returning home is the most difficult part of long-distance hiking. You have grown outside the puzzle and your piece no longer fits. — Cindy Ross
After a day’s walk, everything has twice its usual value. — G.M. Trevelyan
A walk in nature walks the soul back home. — Mary Davis
Everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you are climbing it. — Andy Rooney
I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order. — John Burroughs
Don’t go to sleep now, for you have been awakened. Don’t shut your eyes, or you will put out the light. Stay awake to the power and force that guides and protects your divine essence. — Debbie Ford
Because in the end, you won’t remember the time you spent working in an office or mowing the lawn. Climb that goddamn mountain. – Jack Kerouac
In all things of nature, there is something of the marvelous. – Aristotle
In every walk with nature, one received far more than he seeks. – John Muir
Hiking is a bit like life: The journey only requires you to put one foot in front of the other…again and again and again. And if you allow yourself the opportunity to be present throughout the entirety of the trek, you will witness beauty every step of the way, not just at the summit. — Unattributed
There really is no correct way to hike the trail, and anyone who insists that there is ought not to worry so much about other people’s experiences. Hikers need to hike the trail that’s right for them… ― Adrienne Hall
I Am: Shepherd
Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder. Help someone’s soul heal. Walk out of your house like a shepherd. ― Rumi
The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep’s throat, for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as his liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act as the destroyer of liberty. Plainly, the sheep and the wolf are not agreed upon a definition of liberty. — Abraham Lincoln
Shepherds lift their heads, not to gaze at a new light but to hear angels. ― Richelle E. Goodrich
The seaman tells stories of winds, the ploughman of bulls; the soldier details his wounds, the shepherd his sheep. — Laurence J. Peter
… we’re lazy when it comes to doing things that are good for us; we also want someone to follow – someone to go first, for them to take the risks thereby smoothing our path; a sort of guarantee that we won’t stumble. Ironically, we also want to be followed in some way; we are both sheep and shepherd. ― Renée Paule
There was a shepherd the other day … who had in his eyes that reminiscence of horizons which makes the eyes of shepherds and of mountaineers different from the eyes of other men. ― Hilaire Belloc
I don’t want to get too philosophical, but in a sense, you’re given this gift, this sort of creative force in you, and I think everyone has it, and it’s completely unique to you. And you as a person have a little bit of a responsibility as its shepherd if you choose to incorporate that into your life. — Ze Frank
Too many leaders act as if the sheep… their people… are there for the benefit of the shepherd, not that the shepherd has responsibility for the sheep. — Ken Blanchard
It is the duty of a good shepherd to shear his sheep, not to skin them. — attributed to Tiberius
Reflections on mountain, wind, fire, quake and silence: themes from 1 Kings.
Holiness, not in the fire, wind or quake, but in the silence that comes after: It is about sweeping in when we are too comfortable and moving us out of those places we cling to when we fear the unknowns and try to avoid the pain and injustice around us. It is about empowering us to do the things that so many others – and even sometimes our own systems – have told us we cannot do because of our gender, age, or economic situation, our education status, color of skin, or sexual orientation. It is about equipping ALL of us to be prophets by speaking truth, spreading love, and fighting for justice and equality for all of God’s children. — Nadia Bolz-Weber
Song: The Climb performed by Miley Cyrus (video link)
Zazen on Ching-t’ing Mountain
— Li Po, Translated by Sam Hamill
The birds have vanished down the sky.
Now the last cloud drains away.
We sit together, the mountain and me,
until only the mountain remains.
To me a mountain is a buddha. think of the patience, hundreds of thousands of years just sittin there bein perfectly perfectly silent and like praying for all living creatures in that silence and just waitin for us to stop all our frettin and foolin. ― Jack Kerouac
Continue reading “Reflections on mountain, wind, fire, quake and silence: themes from 1 Kings.”
God on the Mountain: Reflections for this week
Acts of God … where God is and where God is not — reflections on natural disasters and the aftermath — mountain, wind, fire, quake and silence: themes from 1 Kings. Where do you find ‘acts of God’ in your life? What evokes the presence of the sacred for you?
Holiness, not in the fire, wind or quake, but in the silence that comes after: It is about sweeping in when we are too comfortable and moving us out of those places we cling to when we fear the unknowns and try to avoid the pain and injustice around us. It is about empowering us to do the things that so many others – and even sometimes our own systems – have told us we cannot do because of our gender, age, or economic situation, our education status, color of skin, or sexual orientation. It is about equipping ALL of us to be prophets by speaking truth, spreading love, and fighting for justice and equality for all of God’s children. — Nadia Bolz-Weber Continue reading “God on the Mountain: Reflections for this week”