The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.
– J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
At 54 years of age, my road is longer than some, and yet shorter than others. I know that my road will go on for a short, or a long way, and it will go on and join other roads after I can no longer travel. I know that I must take this road. It will branch in places and I will need to choose the better road that is not always the easier road, and not even the best road for me. That is what it means to be on a mission for and with others. The others are apparent at every point in the road. I will want to take a road that serves my wife, children, grandchildren, and other descendants. It is less obvious that I will want to take the road that favours my fellow travellers: those whom I have met, those whom I work alongside, those with whom I share citizenship, those whom I serve in a community of faith, and even those who are suffering in far off countries like Nepal and Nigeria (to name only two of approximately 200). Ultimately, I want to walk the road that serves the mission of God: to seek and save the lost, to be an instrument of peace and redemption, and to leave this world a better place than the world into which I was born. This is the road “I pursue with eager feet.”
