“What if I find the courage to follow you up the steep mountain

Will I be able to see your face differently

Or will I stumble

Over my own sinfulness or pride or

Will you challenge me

To sacrifice my own son or

Will my own flesh be enough

To satisfy your longing

For me

Or will I be able to have an open ear to hear the story of my ancestors

Or will I be deaf to all the ways you want to speak to me and

Will I be able to stand in a cloud with the ancient ones

Who have taught me so much to listen carefully

To your voice

Or will I collapse along the way overwhelmed from the weight of the world today

That ignores such challenges and deaf to such calls

And will the mountains of gun violence and losing our children

Be enough sacrifice as you tested Abraham

In our schools and in our malls

Or is it enough to journey along desert lands

In our world to discover the shortage of water and melting glaciers

And journey into the oceans and see the plastics that wildlife choke on

Or how do you want my journey to be even when it is within my own house

At my breakfast table when my children

Do not want to speak to me

Is that desert enough

Or a high enough mountain to climb

When their silence becomes such walls

And their addictions are more rugged and taller than any mountain

Or how should I climb up to you in this Lenten journey

And will I be able to listen to your consoling voice

Or treasure the glory of your light and

Will I find you

And me

Together in new shadows

Giving me the courage and the forgiveness

I need to simply ask

The question

What if I find the courage to follow you?”