“…[S]tand at the crossroads, and look and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way lies; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls…” Jeremiah 6:16b (NRSV)
The words of the prophet Jeremiah seem most fitting for the place in life in which I currently find myself. Standing, looking, and asking are three actions that often imply waiting – an activity I do not particularly enjoy, perhaps because it feels like I am not doing anything when I should be doing something, which converts stillness from a restful state to one of agitation.
However, my agitation with stillness was eased by the following quote from renowned peace scholar John Paul Lederach who, in his most recent book, The Moral Imagination: The Art and Soul of Building Peace, states “Stillness is not inactivity. It is the presence of disciplined activity without movement…” But activity without movement is an elusive concept to grasp, especially when I find myself in a location where I do not understand my place.
But Lederach echoes Jeremiah’s words saying: “Slow down, Stop. Watch what moves around you. Feel what moves in you.” So I “stand at the crossroads” and wait for direction, for movement, for understanding.
Lederach identifies this urgency to discover our place as “the soul of place” that calls us “…to understand the nature of the place where we find ourselves and the nature of our place in that location,” something that has escaped me in the past months, leaving me with a greater sense of restlessness than stillness.
Despite feeling as though my “soul of place” continues to call without rest, I am not without hope. Lederach states: “Those who have struggled and continue to wrestle with ‘Who am I?’ and ‘Where am I?’ nurture a sense of awe and connection. They build the soul of place. They come to see themselves as part of something, not as in control of something.”
And so I am trying to come to terms with not being in control, and to see myself as part of something bigger and to be still in the waiting for “the ancient paths, where the good way lies” to become clear. I don’t know what those paths will look like for me on the map of life or where they will lead me, but I trust the words of the prophet that, if I walk “where the good way lies,” my soul will find rest.
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