Loss and hope: Vocation and our journey as a pilgrimage with God

Loss and hope: Vocation and our journey as a pilgrimage with God 

^{Focus texts: Exodus; 1-2 Kings; Mark 1:40-42; Matthew 16; Luke 9:23, 15:11-32.} 

Today, I would like to reflect on finding hope in times of loss as we journey with God; in particular, how my experiences of this have helped to form my sense of vocation; and how we might help others who have experienced loss of any form to find hope. 

In our lives, we are all on a journey. Together as individuals in our daily lives; with our families and friends; with the wider Christian Church; and beyond. Life is like a pilgrimage; it has a beginning, a destination, and a journey along the way. God is both our companion and our destination on this journey; our Christian vocation takes us to our destination. 

This journey in life has many features and characteristics; like a long road trip, comprising of several different sections, and times of certainty and uncertainty. Sometimes it's easy and well signposted, and the road is free-flowing as we follow our planned routes. But at other times it is not; diversions and unforeseen circumstances cause uncertainty in our path. 

Perhaps one of the most profound times of uncertainty is when one experiences a loss of life. I have experienced this to a fair degree on my journey so far; this is perhaps why I'm particularly interested in the topic I've chosen to talk about today. I had been orphaned by the time I was thirteen years old, and my grandparents had all died by the time I was one year old. For some time, my journey's direction seemed to be uncertain. What was I to do when presented with so many difficult forks in the road? 

Was I without hope? No. For God - who is omnipresent - has always been there. God is always with us on our journeys; even when I didn't know where my journey was headed, God did. This is something I came to realise more in hindsight – and realising my absolute dependence on God through my circumstances has been instrumental in my discernment on my vocational journey so far, together with my sense of call to serve God to a greater degree than I currently am. One of my favourite poems is 'Footprints in the Sand'; to me, this beautifully demonstrates how God is always with us on our journey - giving us hope - even when this is less obvious to us. God Himself works in us, and through those around us; even at times of loss, God – our hope – is still with us. How beautiful. 

There are many other forms of loss; for instance, loss of health, status, stability, job, possessions or home. As part of my current placement at St Michael's Croydon, I volunteer at a refugee centre and a hospital once a week, where I meet with many people who have experienced loss in these ways. And yet I often find they still display hope and joy, even in their sometimes profound circumstances; just last week, I met a patient in the hospital who prayed for me just as much as I prayed for him, so happy he was when I told him I'm discerning a vocation to the priesthood. 

In the Bible, we can see many kinds of journey; both individual journeys like Jesus's parable of the lost son in Luke 15, and collective journeys such as the Moses story in Exodus, and of course the Exilic Age. The themes of loss and hope are both prominent in these accounts – and we ourselves might be able to relate to them. Jesus acts with great compassion when He heals those who have lost health or life; for instance, the leper in Mark 1; the resuscitation of Lazarus in John 11; and, even just before His earthly death, he makes sure that His mother and the beloved disciple will take care of each other, in John 19. 

If and when we suffer loss, we are not without hope, empathy or understanding – for Jesus Himself knows what it is like. In Matthew 16; Peter tried to talk Jesus around the Messiah's prediction about His death; but Christ knew that He had to suffer before His exaltation, and remained firmly committed to following through on His journey. It is Christ we follow on our journey, as Christians; and, while at times this is not necessarily always easy (as Jesus suggests by saying how we must take up our cross), we are made stronger as a result. 

We are all moving. We are all travelling. And we are all making progress; however much or not we feel it. This is perhaps especially important to remember at times when our journeys might lack certainty, or when we experience loss. Our lives happen in the providence of God, who gives us hope; His omniscience is both comforting and reassuring, especially when we don't know what might be in store for us on our journey. 

We all have vocations; all we need to do is to listen to God throughout our journey in life. How might God be calling us to help others?