Untrodden Paths

One of my favorite prayers is:

O God, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go, but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting up; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (ELW p. 317).

The first time I prayed this was at an evening prayer service at Emanuel Lutheran Church in RI. It struck a chord with me then and continues to do so. As the time approached for the move to seminary and since our arrival, these words have echoed in my heart, "...not knowing where we go, but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us..." I don't know where we'll go after graduation in 2012. I don't know where my internship will be my third year. I don't know where my CPE will be this coming summer. Until today, I didn't know where my teaching parish would be that starts this Sunday.

Today I found out where I was going for teaching parish because today was matching day! Pastors and mentors came to the seminary and we were introduced to one another to get acquainted with each other and the church that would be the teaching parish. I feel like the pastor of my teaching parish and I really connected and it sounds like a good fit. Though still untrodden, at least this path is now known. It's not always easy, but can we entrust to God's care and faithfulness those unknowns of our lives? Paul did. Shouldn't we?

Flickr picture.