The Bridge

Years ago, while stationed at the U.S. Naval Academy, I lived very near the Severn River, a 14-mile-long tidal estuary that wanders past Annapolis, Maryland. A water-level, two-laned bridge crossed the Severn about a mile away…a rather routine little bridge that boasted no scary heights or turns. But for one friend, crossing that bridge, or any bridge, for that matter, was a traumatic event. It was so difficult for her that she called friends to drive her car across while she rode as a passenger. Even the thought of bridges in San Diego, San Francisco or New York City could cause her great anguish.

But…it’s just a bridge, someone might say. If you want to get from here to there, you have to go over it. True, but “what if…” and that’s the problem. Many of us live “what if…” lives. Bridges can bring out an attack of the “what ifs…”

New subject. I recently acquired a copy of a beautiful prayer attributed to the Dalai Lama, a gentle prayer titled “Prayer of Peace.” It begins: “May I become…” and then lists several things one might become in order to find and to be peace in the world. “May I become…a protector…a guide for the lost…a sanctuary for all in danger…” And there it is: a bridge for those with rivers to cross. And who among us has not had “rivers to cross” in our lives?

I remind us today that moving from doubt to trust, from despair to hope, from brokenness to wholeness, an old way to a new way oftentimes means that we have to cross a bridge…leave one place to arrive at a new place, an old way of thinking to a new way. Is it any wonder that Jesus described himself as The Way? Perhaps he could have said “I am the bridge that links you to life.” In another place and time, Jesus called it being “born again.” Don’t let the institutional baggage attached to those words turn you away…it just means that He is my doorway, my portal, my bridge to a full, meaningful life. He is the bridge to the fullness of life right now, only in some distant, eternal future.

The next time you cross a bridge…big one or small one…tranquil or terrifying…think of the One who connects the pieces of life and shapes them, in love, into completeness. May you have many rivers yet to cross and may your crossing remind you of the One who is at your side. The Bridge.

Press on!