The Journey

“Come follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you become”
- Mark 1:17

Jesus invites us on a journey to become. In this verse it’s to become ‘fishers of people.’ In other passages it’s other things. But it always comes from following him. And it’s always a becoming. That’s what a journey is all about. Take time to listen in on what God might say to you in this poem by the wonderful Mary Oliver, who died yesterday.

The Journey
Mary Oliver

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began, 
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice
--though the whole house
began to tremble 
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
"Mend my life!"
each voice cried.
But you didn't stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voice behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do
--determined to save
the only life that you could save