Charting a Way: Step by Step

I’ve been using the metaphor of a compass lately in describing where we are going. Increasingly I am responding to inquiries about the what, when, and where of the journey we are on with our friends from Pilgrims by saying, “we don’t have a map, but we do have a compass.”

I was thinking about compasses again this week in a conversation with Scott Schenkelberg, president and CEO of Miriam’s Kitchen. We were comparing notes on our experiences during the early days of Covid and our experiences in the present moment of authoritarian occupation of DC. Both times are unprecedented in our experiences in leadership, and both came with unusual demands upon leaders. But as we reflected, we named a common thread: both the early days of Covid and our present situation call us to take the next right step.

In other words, as was the case five years ago, we cannot look too far down the road because we cannot possibly know what is coming next. There is no map for this part of the journey. But now, as then, we can moment by moment and step by step discern the next right step because we have a compass.

We have the gospel of Jesus Christ that guides us to love, to concern and compassion for the most vulnerable, to justice and shalom.

While pondering this it occurred to me that Western’s logo is a compass of sorts. It is a Celtic rosette cross in design, but it doesn’t take much imagination (or any particular cut-and-paste design chops) to see it also as a compass. 

I don’t know what the coming weeks and months hold for us – for our congregations, for our city, for our nation. We have some challenging days ahead. But we have been through challenging days before, and when we have been faithful to the gospel call we have discerned well the next right step. As Pete Seeger put it in a union organizing song a long time ago, “Step by step the longest march can be won, can be won.”