Have you ever noticed how many great movies take place in prison? Have you noticed how many movies are about coming home in some way? Why do these stories keep being told over and over again? And … why do they resonate so much that we keep watching and listening? 

The prison yard and home are two archetypal images that express the core of the human condition as we know it. 

We long deeply to be home … that place where we are loved as we experience being safe, seen, and cherished. We may have experienced that as children or maybe not. However, we long to be home. We were created with this desire. In his book, Healing What’s Within, Chuck DeGroat describes this desire as a homing beacon. Indeed, there is something pinging within each of us that is pointing us in a direction. The pinging of this homing beacon is desire. We all know the experience of longing and desire, but we are often unaware of where that desire is pointing us or we’ve been given solutions to dealing with the desire that fall short of or perhaps go past the intended destination.

This is where the prison imagery expresses our experience. We often find ourselves looking and searching for home but end up imprisoned in our own messes … disoriented, distraught, and perhaps disillusioned. When the solutions to desire are off the mark, they frequently imprison us in cycles of addiction. The addiction could be to substances and perhaps even more likely to things like people pleasing, working too much, eating too much, shopping too much, or simply getting lost in the thought spirals of never having or being enough.

We are all seeking to get home … where we are content and cared for, where we know who we are and whose we are, and where we are loved and feel affection.

Thomas Keating described it this way: “What is home? It’s to live in God’s house all the days of our lives. And that house is this participation in the divine life … a communion, or a unity, that is incomparable, that is oneness, that’s inseparable. If we really trust God, we don’t have a care in the world.”

As we look back to the creation of humanity, the design was that we live at home with God. (Genesis 1-2) We are God’s children … made in the love of the Trinity … “let us make humanity in our own image.” (Gen 1:26-27) And … what is that image? It is the capacity to love and be loved.

In the Scriptures, we are invited to make this journey home, but the way is not always evident and we frequently do not have the discernment to know which way to turn. In the prayer book of the Bible (Psalms), we find 15 prayers called the Psalms of Ascent (120-134). They were traditionally sung/prayed as the people of God made their way to the temple in Jerusalem (thought of as an ascent). Pilgrimages might have meant walking for a few days or up to several weeks. These particular prayers gave discernment, stirred desire, and invited dwelling in the love of God.

As we reflect on these psalms and pray them, we are shaped for the journey home. Certainly, we are experiencing life in the presence of God now and growing deeper in this experience is metaphorically, a journey … a pilgrimage. In this sense, if you are seeking to follow Christ and live in the love of God, you are a pilgrim.

The Scriptures describe this as a pilgrimage to the heart of God. Perhaps nowhere is this desire better expressed than in Psalm 84:1-6:

“How lovely is your dwelling place, LORD Almighty! My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young— a place near your altar, LORD Almighty, my King and my God. Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you. Blessed are those whose strength is in you, whose hearts are set on pilgrimage.”

The Psalms of Ascent invite us to have a heart set on pilgrimage. A heart set on knowing and experiencing the heart of God. Our destination is to dwell with God, deepen in our desire for Him, and develop discernment as we journey.

Several questions shape this kind of pilgrimage:

Where am I? (the discipline of discernment) 

What do I want? (the discipline of desire)

How am I experiencing God’s love? (the discipline of dwelling)

In the words of my good friend and brilliant theologian, John DelHousaye, we are invited to follow Jesus in awareness and response. As we become aware of where we are, what we want, and how God is loving us, we respond in trust with practices of discernment, desire, and dwelling.

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Starting March 5 through Easter, I will be posting a daily devotional that walks through the Psalm of Ascent. This collection of reflections, Walking Home, will be supported by several Zoom calls during these weeks for those who are interested in further reflection, spiritual practices, and discussion. Learn more and sign up here.