Introduction: Episode 1
(To read my previous post, click here.)
The Breaking News
Do you remember when we heard the breaking news?
We were wrapping Christmas presents at Grandma’s where the TV was always droning. But this broadcast caught our attention. A San Francisco family -- two parents and their young children -- were missing in the Oregon wilderness.
It was 2006 and, as grade-schoolers, you already loved Oregon’s forests from happy times of canoeing, hiking -- even a few overnights, high in a fire tower. But now James and Kati Kim were not on a happy holiday. They and their little girls, a four-year-old and eight-month-old baby, were missing somewhere in Oregon’s vast Siskiyou wilderness in the fearsome cold of December.
Maps Misunderstood
James Kim knew his way around digital maps and computer codes. He was a rising star at CNET, researching and reviewing the latest consumer technology. But his high-tech world did not prepare him to understand that most ancient symbol -- a paper map of roads and rivers.
Friends think the Kim family probably began their trip guided by directions from MapQuest or Google. This would be the tool of choice for such digital early adopters. But in those first years of development, digital maps were sometimes faulty. So, at some point in their journey, James and Kati had purchased a paper road map to supplement their virtual one.
Now, after they missed a crucial turn, they pulled out that paper map. It showed a forest service road, Bear Camp Road -- a thin black line that seemed to promise a speedy return to their route toward the Oregon coast.
Yet, they missed the paper map’s footnote about Bear Camp Road: “Road closed in winter.”
What happened? Maybe James and Kati were reading from the car’s dim light. Maybe they missed the map’s footnote symbol.
It would become a fatal oversight.
The Kims kept driving toward peril until deep snow halted any possible movement forward -- or back. They were trapped in Bear Camp Road’s snow and darkness. Resigned to their impasse, they settled in for the night, turning the engine off and on to stay warm, trying conserve their fuel.
The Kims were not able to use their maps. First, their digital map failed them. Second, while they had an accurate paper map, they didn’t read it carefully.
Maps of Faith
This book is dedicated to helping you use a map through your own wilderness. And although I am speaking especially to my own adult kids, this book is concerned, as well, with your friends and all those at a crucial juncture in life.
You’re in your late twenties with life-altering choices ahead: where to live, what is your life’s calling, and with whom will you partner for friendship and family. These choices are like the wilderness trails you have long explored and loved. And you’ve always accepted the trail’s risk and uncertainty for its promise of joy and beauty.
Here’s my hope for you: as you choose your wilderness trails, I invite you to reconsider the maps provided by the world’s great faiths. I’ll ask you to rethink religion as a powerful map – not a collection of mythologies from a misty past, but as powerfully relevant for your daily reality, orienting you to what’s real.
Like a map.
(Continued December 17, Introduction: Episode 2.)