“The Light of God surrounds me.
The Love of God enfolds me.
The Power of God protects me.
The Presence of God watches over me.”
~James Dillett Freeman

This morning I had the privilege of visiting a new endeavor that is the neighborhood just north of downtown Minneapolis. It is called Heritage Park Senior Services Center and is a collaboration of the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority, the YMCA, Courage Center, Neighborhood Health Services and Augustana Care. It provides housing, health care, adult care services and wellness resources for older adults. There are apartments for those who need a limited amount of supervision and those who are living with various forms of cognitive challenges. It is a beautiful space full of smiling people, large doses of dignity, and even larger spoonfuls of hope. All this just blocks away from places that see little of any of those things on a daily basis.

In the process of giving a tour and talking with great enthusiasm about the work they do, one of our hosts used a term that caught my attention. She was describing the level of safety and security they endeavor to create. She spoke of many of the residents by name and then added there was extra care taken with ‘exit-seekers’.

Exit-seekers. Of course, I knew what she meant. She was speaking of those vulnerable ones who might, given the opportunity, wander away from boundaries created to keep them safe. Exit-seekers. The term just wouldn’t leave my consciousness. Her concern and use of this term showed such a depth of understanding for those in her care. Her work required that she, and her coworkers, pay special attention to those who might believe they were living a different day, one they had known some time ago, but we’re not living now. They might just seek an exit to walk down the street to talk to a friend or to the diner where they had had coffee every morning. Or they might go out a door on their way to a job they no longer have and haven’t had in years. Their memories of the past are more vivid than their present. Their exit-seeking could bring them to a harm that was unimagined and misunderstood.

I honor these beloved ones and pray a blessing of protection upon them. But, in truth,there are many exit-seekers in the world, people of varying ages and stages of life. I think of those who are searching for an exit that will lead them out of addiction and the pain of living a life that no longer makes sense. There are those who are looking for the door that will take them out of a difficult or even abusive relationship or a job that no longer fits their gifts, if it ever did. There exit-seekers who are often caught in the revolving door of debt and deceit. There are young ones who would love to find the exit that would relieve the pain of bullying. There are even those who are trying to find a way out of a church that no longer is big enough for the spiritual path on which they find themselves. They want to find an exit that allows them to honor what they’ve known but perhaps find another door through which they will find a new home.

Are you an exit-seeker at this point of your life? Is there a door that begs to be opened so you may move on to the ‘what next’? Are you finding it difficult to muster up the courage to walk to the exit and push open the door? Prayer of protection all around…..

For all those who are seeking exits this day, may the finding be easy and the opening gentle and filled with wisdom. For all those for whom seeking an exit would bring danger and disaster, may you be surrounded by the loving ones who watch out over you. Day in and day out. Forever and ever. Amen.