What Are You Looking For? 

What Are You Leaving Behind?

These are the first two questions pilgrims to the Holy Land are frequently asked: what did we come to Jerusalem seeking? What are we hoping to leave behind here?

As Christians, what we’re looking for is Jesus. We are looking for love. Pilgrims are looking for the footsteps, the fingerprints, the vestiges of God’s presence in the place God once walked. And we find it in a myriad of places. We see it in the sacrifice Jesus made to devote his life to others - to heal, teacher and organize for justice. And we see it in the way he gave himself to us — to go off to torture and death, unjustly killed for facing off with injustice. And we are looking for ways to imitate and embody that love. We come seeking love.

What are we hoping to leave behind? All that keeps us from loving. Selfishness, personal ambition, idolatry, misaligned priorities, anger, disunity, and distrust. We come hoping to shed those filters and blinders that detour and distract from loving others. All of our biases, fears, and hesitations that keep us from being the force of love and reconciliation to which we are called, we seek to cast off and leave behind.

However these questions aren’t just applicable to pilgrims, but to everyone. When we awaken in the morning, can we ask, ‘What are we looking for?’ I find this a really effective way to frame the day’s journey — it helps me prioritize and to think more deeply about what I am hoping to accomplish. 

And when I ask myself each morning what I want to leave behind, I am inspired to think about why I’m doing the things I’m doing: should I be spending my time in the meetings, on the calls, and engaged in the activities I’m undertaking?

What would tomorrow look like if we asked:

What am I looking for?

What am I leaving behind?