During my sabbatical in 2024, I traveled the length of Route 66. Somewhere along that open road, I had pens made with a simple phrase printed on them: “Embrace the journey, follow the open road.”
I didn’t know then how often that phrase would return to me. It was right there to meet me this Epiphany.
As I prepared for the Feast of the Epiphany this year, I picked up one of those pens while reflecting on the Magi. They, too, embraced a journey they did not fully understand. They followed a star without knowing the destination. What they did know was the wisdom they had been shaped by: ancient prophecies, lifelong attentiveness to the night sky, and a trust that light was worth following, however distant.
That posture of trust is at the heart of the spiritual discipline of meditation.
Meditation as Trust, Not Mastery
When many people hear the word meditation, they imagine emptying the mind or achieving calm. But in the Christian tradition, meditation is less about control and more about attentive presence. It is the practice of staying with something long enough for God to meet us there. This can be in Scripture, silence, creation, current world events, or a question.
Meditation asks us to slow down.
To listen beneath the noise.
To notice what we might otherwise rush past.
Like the Magi, meditation forms us into people who can follow light even when the road ahead is unclear.
Star Words: A Simple Practice for the Journey
One way we are practicing meditation this season is through Star Words. Everyone who attended the Feast of the Epiphany and Star Party on January 6 received one. You can participate, too.
A Star Word is a word rooted in Holy Scripture, received as a gift rather than chosen. This distinction matters. When we choose a word, we often choose what already feels comfortable or appealing. When a word is given, it may surprise us. It may challenge us. It may even cause us to resist.
And that resistance is often where God is at work.
A Star Word is not meant to be solved, optimized, or mastered. It is meant to be lived with.
How to Practice Meditation with a Star Word
If you receive a Star Word, consider these simple ways of incorporating it into your prayer life:
- Place it where you will see it often
A mirror, desk, nightstand, dashboard, or tucked into your Bible or wallet. - Sit quietly with the word
Notice what feelings arise. Curiosity? Joy? Discomfort? Indifference? Let those responses be information, not problems to fix. - Pay attention to where it shows up
In Scripture, conversations, music, headlines, or moments of ordinary life. - Pray with gentle curiosity
“God, what are you inviting me to notice through this word?”
Then wait. Don’t rush for answers. - Explore its roots
Look up where the word appears in Scripture. Read the passages slowly. If you’re a child or praying with children, do this together.
Some days the word may feel distant. Other days it may feel like it’s following you around. Trust that God is at work in both.
Following the Light We Are Given
The Magi did not know the whole journey when they first looked up at the sky. They followed the light they were given, step by step. And that light led them—not to power or certainty—but to love made flesh.
Meditation forms us into people who can do the same.
People who trust that God is still guiding.
People who embrace the journey.
People who follow the open road.
If you’d like to receive a Star Word digitally or explore this practice further, you can use a Star Word generator here: https://www.trcnyc.org/starwords/
May the light that guided the Magi guide us still.
And may the words we receive draw us, again and again, into the love of God made known in Jesus.