The Traveler’s Path: Finding Spiritual Growth and Inspiration Through Travel by Doug Brouwer is a book for sojourners, and, if I’m not mistaken, that label applies to all of us.
After all, as the book says in its first line, “Travel is our origin story.” Among the many things that make this book important is its congruity with humanity’s story through the ages, as contained in the Bible. Have you ever stopped to think about how much of the Bible happens during a long walk? When Elijah is taken up to heaven by a whirlwind, he and Elisha were walking from Gilgal to Jericho. When Jesus wanted to impress upon his disciples just how significant their work would be in a fallen and broken world loved by God, he led them on a walk forty-two miles north from Capernaum to the wild world of Roman debauchery and excess in Caesarea Philippi. All the recorded missionary journeys of the Apostle Paul add up to nearly 10,000 miles—all for the purpose of telling everyone everywhere that Jesus, not Caesar, is Lord.
Humanity has always been on the move. And, as this book reveals, Doug Brouwer has been on the move much of his life. After growing up in Grand Rapids and attending Calvin College, he headed to Princeton Seminary in New Jersey. From there he’s served a series of Presbyterian churches throughout the United States and late in his career pastored churches in Switzerland and the Netherlands. Over the years, Doug’s led countless trips on several continents and done pilgrimages on the Spanish and Portuguese Caminos. The book makes clear that Doug’s travel experiences have been a vital part of his spiritual and pastoral development.
My eyes were opened as I learned about Stolpersteine, “stumbling stones, commemorative brass markers, carefully placed in the sidewalk outside the former home of someone who had been ruthlessly rounded up and killed in a Nazi death camp.” Doug tells of a Stolpersteine near where he lived in the Netherlands: “Here lived Robert K. Herrmann, born 1896, deported 1944, murdered January 16, 1945, Bergen-Belsen.” Alongside it was another, “Here lived Gertrude F.J.M. Hermann-Katz, born 1901, deported 1944, murdered February 3, 1945, Bergen-Belsen.”
I found this sobering and chilling.
Doug goes on to say, “I imagined their lives on De Mildestraat, the name of their street. I gave thanks for them, and I lamented a world where the murder of millions of human beings might be planned and carried out with such brutality.” The Stolpersteine throughout Europe raise questions, more pertinent today than ever, about how nations tell (or attempt to gloss over) the tragic and painful parts of their histories. How do we tell of our atrocities?
Stolpersteine are but one part of the Doug’s travel experiences. In the book he writes about various mission trips, pilgrimages, the power of learning new languages, and even goes inside various prisons around the world. In it all, his keen power of observation shines through.
Carl Jung, is credited with saying, “Hurry is not of the devil, it is the devil.” Our crazy and mixed up world urges us to rush past everything—and, according to Jung, that’s demonic. Doug Brouwer urges us to slow down and pay attention.
The book is full of stories, which makes it a fun and interesting read. Doug’s stories of guiding trips to the Middle East brought back memories of the years I led similar trips. In 1999, I was set to lead a group to Israel that included several students from Western Theological Seminary. One night a thought came to me: wouldn’t it be wonderful if Eugene and Janice Peterson came with us? I called Eugene at his home in Montana and to my great joy and utter astonishment he accepted my invitation. There was one condition—he wanted to just be one of the hikers. What a gift it was to walk the land of the Bible in his presence. I still see many of the students from that trip. Repeatedly, they mention how that trip, which was not much more than a long, unhurried hike, set the trajectory of their pastoral ministry. When Doug Brouwer claims that spiritual growth can come through travel, I remember that trip and nod my head in agreement.
There is a beautiful moment in Thorton Wilder’s Our Town when Emily Gibbs, who died giving birth to her second child, is allowed to return to earth to see her family—without being seen by them, assisted by a character simply known as the Stage Manager. She is deeply pained to see how everyone is talking past one another and not reveling in the sacred moments of life. In her anxiety, she turns to the Stage Manager and says, “Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it? – Every, every minute?” The Stage Manager replies, “No. The saints and poets, maybe they do some.”
Doug Brouwer is both a saint and a poet. His lifelong avocation as a traveler has trained him to see and experience things that most of us glide past. Do yourself a favor: before setting off on your next adventure, pick up a copy of The Traveler’s Path: Finding Spiritual Growth and Inspiration through Travel.
2 Responses
Great review Tim (hope there are more). I am somewhere in the middle of Doug’s wanderings and love how his writing takes you with him. I haven’t come to the part where he talks of “Stolpersteine” but was immediately drawn to look it up. What a creative and symbolic way to remember the life AND death of now over 100,000 people!
Thankfully God has graced me with a full, albeit aging, life that by its nature has slowed me down a bit and as Doug reminds, to live until we die. A spiritual journey indeed.
Tim, your blog was an example of perfect timing. I’ve just been wondering, what book shall I read next.
You’ve answered my question! Thanks! Blessings, my friend.