Tuesday, July 14, 2020
Scripture for the Day
With my voice I cry to the Lord;
with my voice I make supplication to the Lord.
2 I pour out my complaint before him;
I tell my trouble before him.
The Pilgrim’s Compass is a traditional spiritual discipline and tool of examen. Like the compass roses on maps of old, the four points are marked as E, S, W and N. Traditionally, the letters represent the cardinal directions, but in the pilgrim’s compass the letters stand for encounter, struggle, wounding or wandering, and new name. As the pilgrim makes her way through her days, the compass helps her orient herself in reference to God. The tool invites daily, prayerful reflection on the “content of our life before God” (Lang 53).[i]
In the final session of one of my ZOOM small groups, I asked participants to locate themselves on the pilgrim’s compass. Since we had spent weeks studying the tool, everyone was familiar with the stages. About 80% of us identified ourselves as struggling, wounded or wandering. It is not an easy season – confronting racial injustice and the mistakes we have made, dealing with the consequences of a devastating pandemic, coping with “old” grief that shows up in new ways. While we want to shy away from our weakness and struggle, the pilgrim’s compass is a daily reminder that “these are all a natural part not only of life in general, but of (our) faith journey in particular” (95).
The psalmist in today’s passage certainly doesn’t hold back from sharing his pain. He complains, cries out and lists his troubles before the Lord. There is no stiff upper lip or looking on the bright side. “Give heed to my cry,” he says, “for I am brought very low.” I am grateful to God that such a posture is enshrined in scripture. With the help of passages like Psalm 142 and spiritual disciplines like the pilgrim’s compass, we practice placing our whole lives before God. When we offer our struggles and wounds in prayer, we move toward a deeper relationship with Christ in which we experience God’s mercy and grace. Cast all your cares upon the Lord because God cares for you (1 Peter 5:7). This is the good news of the gospel. Thanks be to God! Amen.
[i] Lang, Paul, The Pilgrim’s Compass: Finding and Following the God We Seek, Westminster John Knox Press, 2019.
