The hardest part about beginning anything is finding the beginning. Knowing how to begin and where to begin are often synonymous, but they are rarely explicit. Sometimes, the journey’s beginning is shown; and sometimes, found. In light of this generalized binary, I see two categories, two spectral endpoints, of journeys as defined by the nature of their beginnings.
- Deterministic journeys, wherein the beginning, middle, and end all have predetermined and unequivocal locations, expectations, and outcomes. They are to be performed like invocational rituals in hopes of receiving or attaining whatever was promised at the outset. The Good Witch of the North gave Dorothy the location of the beginning of her deterministic journey and instructed her not to waver from the path/ritual, if she wants to reach the Emerald City.
- Personalized journeys, wherein the beginning materializes wherever your feet happen to be standing, and the direction in which it takes you is in whatever direction you happen to be facing. Christopher McCandless set out on a journey from the happenstance of his home and wandered hither and tither until his desire landed him unprepared in the back of the school bus. He may have had a destination in mind when he began, but the sum of the parts of his journey had no obligation to ever take him there.
The journey for the Christian is a hybrid of the two. It is best encapsulated by The Pilgrim’s Progress. Christian begins in a field near his own home where he first reads the Good News, but the destination is the same for everyone transformed by the Gospel. Of course, not all of us live in an allegorical town. Where then is the real beginning of each of our real journeys?
As the humble booklet 52 Words Every Christian Should Know states on page five, “Christians begin with the Scriptures”. John Bunyan’s Christian began with the scriptures; in similar fashion, all of us who have set out on the Christian journey can trace the beginning back to the truths stored in ancient writings delivered to us quite often by way of word-of-mouth. This blog will be a record of my Christian journey through books related to the Christian Way, beginning with the Scriptures and He who was in the beginning.
“In the beginning, God…” (Genesis 1:1a)
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.” (John 1:1-2)
This blog is also meant as a platform for didacticism. I want to teach what I learn, because a hidden light is selfish and wasteful (John 8:16). I do not claim any expertise in the sense that a doctor of philosophy might have framed upon the wall. I read, I learn; I look, I discern. And that’s a great thing we can do in the company of others.