pilgrimage – Jerry Lout ⚬ Writer ⚬ Speaker ⚬ Mobilizer

March 21, 2024March 20, 2024

Anchoring In

“The two of us were hippies during the sixties, but not so much of the drug and partying kind, although we did get into that as well. . .”

My new acquaintance Jim was – between his sips of hot tea – offering me a glimpse into his and his wife’s former pilgrimage.

“Ilah and I were really in our hearts on a quest, but for just what we didn’t know. Experimenting with eastern religions, delving into philosophy and the like. Looking back now, it’s clear we thirsted for meaning. We wanted to know what was real. We were sincere in our seeking.”

The conversation marked the beginning, for Ann and me, a long friendship with Jim and Ilah Garton.

As our visits increased, Jim and I recognized a thread of shared interest – the nurturing of cross-cultural friendships within the world of academia. For the Gartons, the interest had evolved through their growing closeness with Christ.

Once their longtime yearnings for meaning got met by a newfound faith, they immersed themselves in a grounded Christian community.

With university training behind them and the birth of son Joshua, Jim and Ilah set their sights on the land of China. After some years teaching English as a second language, they returned to their American homeland where Jim then specialized in work serving non-profits. It was then that the Garton-and-Lout pathways crossed.

“Coincidences are God’s way of remaining anonymous”. Albert Einstein may have been onto something when he uttered the terse remark.

Those who have ever ventured into an authentic faith journey ‘by the seat of the pants’ can readily attest, there is no adventure just quite like it.

With the aid of Jim’s astute strategizing mind and our combined boatload of prayers, we witnessed the birth of a Tulsa-based ministry – a 501©3 Non-profit – crowning it, International Community Outreach.

In time, with plenty of tweaks and rewrites, we hammered out I.C.O.’s Mission Statement. This declared aim to which we felt the Lord calling us grew to characterize the work for years to come.

International Community Outreach exists to glorify God by meeting practical and spiritual needs of international students through acts of service and through the proclamation of the gospel of Christ.

Still, we knew little of what we were doing. The praying continued.

August 3, 2023August 3, 2023

Smart Steps

“If God wanted me to be a morning person, he would cause the sun to rise later in the day.” A good many people today might share this sentiment.

While the amusing line can strike a sympathetic chord in some, we would likely all benefit from at least giving thought to a practice common in Jesus’ day-by-day living.

And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.*

When we think of it, every new day gets its start in the morning. A no-brainer insight, but one which can help us engage a common-sense truth if we are willing.

Morning persons or not, each and every day begins when we wake from sleep to launch (sometimes maybe shuffle) into it.

Jesus’ personal practice was to rise from sleep (in that normal way his fellow humans routinely do). Shortly after waking Jesus engaged his will to consciously direct his thoughts. Toward God. He was intentional at the start of his day, carving out a space and a time to individually give himself to the direct presence of the Father. We, in our day, might label it his quiet time. Regardless what we name it, this action of Jesus was predictable. Conversing with God is a thing he looked forward to. He would never consider choosing not to.

Inhaling and exhaling air is an activity we (as did Jesus) practice a lot, while almost never thinking about it. Breathing comes automatically. In his repeated ‘practice’ of meeting with God on his daily rising, Jesus had grown to pray ‘automatically’. Not as a robot responding to external commands, but as a much-beloved offspring. He purposely – eagerly as well – set aside those many lesser attractions, lesser voices clamoring for his attention and time. My mind by contrast can often get hijacked by relentless distraction.

Nothing going on around Jesus on any given occasion commanded his attention more than this. Communing with the father trumped all.

Jesus invites us, his beloved apprenticing friends, into much the same kind of lifestyle he enjoyed while navigating the many winding and hilly terrain of earth’s pilgrimage. Christlike living, simply put, is prayer-centered living.

Hanging out with God was a centerpiece in his “being-about-my-father’s-business”. This predictable first-of-the-day habit was no less familiar to him than other common practices – breakfasting, teeth-cleaning, sandal-lacing.

.Anyone acquainted at all with Jesus Christ knows that he understood the best way to live life as a human from day to day. Most of us would probably be wise to ponder this for a moment. Jesus knew the smartest kinds of practices to engage in as a flesh and blood human person. He supplies every apprentice the pattern to follow.

“And he went out. . and there he prayed”.

November 24, 2022

Twin Companions

Training is key.

Entering into the “Jesus life” sets a person in motion (like a theater production) into something much larger than a single First Act.

Don’t misunderstand. Entering God’s kingdom through spiritual rebirth marks a profound start on the journey. For the gift of sins forgiven we contritely thank him from the deep of our being, offering a resounding, “Yes, Lord Jesus. You are mine. I am yours!”

Yet now the journey commences. The Second Act enters. Our larger story within his own begins to unfold.

Life in Jesus was never prescribed as a single transaction. It is not (in athletic language) a sprint. Our marathon life in him carries forward into and through all our days. Each day affecting change as we offer responses to him in love.

Going forward we no longer live life “alone” on our own. We journey together now, with Jesus and his ever-expanding family.

What does it mean when one speaks of his ‘with-God’ adventure toward and throughout eternity. As the scripture informs us, we’re “no longer our own.” We are “purchased with a price”.*

Twin companions mark us – Believing, Following.

We believe.

Into all the coming days of our earthly pilgrimage, we place our real-time goings and doings at his disposal. Believing means venturing forward, trusting God as best we know how.

We follow.

As with any kind of journey it helps to know in clear terms what we are aiming for – where we are headed. Where are we to find ourselves “at the end of the day”?

When he was a young man my dust-bowl-era father travelled by freight trains from Oklahoma to California. He did not ride just any train that came along. The trains he boarded – all of them – were west or northwest-bound. Why? Because California, his travel target, was that direction (“go west young man”).

A Jesus-follower makes one direction their aim. And here is the important thing, the truly big thing when traveling forward on the Jesus Route. Our aim is him. God brings us to him, Jesus. All centers on him. Christ is both our destination and our God-incarnate travel companion.