by Kyle H. Chase · foreword by Leonard Sweet
“I am nought, Thou art all.” Rudolf Otto · The Idea of the Holy, 1924
“This is a book about encountering God in uncertainty. Come closer. Can you feel the desert breezes in your hair and the loose shale beneath your feet? Watch your step.”
Four movements. Twelve waymarkers. Each stone below marks a chapter of the pilgrimage — press one to linger a moment.
He summons us to the threshold of an adventure
Uncertainty and Trust
“Forty years after Moses had given up on the rescue of Hebrew slaves from Egyptian masters, a burning bush gleamed in the wilderness of Midian, unconsumed by the flames.”
An invitation is an inciting event that summons us to the threshold of a new life.
From Chapter One
Blueprints and Stories
“Accepting an invitation from Jesus is a little like getting married while skydiving into the Amazon rainforest.”
You’re in His world now — a world of plots, not plans.
From Chapter Two
Characters and Caricatures
“It was Cairo, day one — the eye of Ra blazing from a cloudless sky — and we were huddled under the gaze of Giza’s pyramids when George opened with a story…”
God wants characters, not caricatures, to re-present Him.
From Chapter ThreeHe risks with us a dangerous ascent
Dragons and Treasure
“When I was 10 years old, my grandpa gave me a box set of C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia. I was too young to know what I had been given.”
Dragons hoard treasure. If you want the treasure, you have to face the dragon.
From Chapter Four
Fortune and Freedom
“Long ago and far away, an old man and his grown son lived in a small village on the frontier of a vast land that was facing a famine. They had one prized possession: a beautiful mare…”
We approach both triumph and tragedy as a mirage in the desert. Each has a way of slipping through our fingers like vapor when we reach out to lay hold of it.
From Chapter Five
Minutes and Moments
“People check the time when their attention wanders.”
If we are always watching the clock, it is likely we have forgotten it’s the clock’s job to remind us to keep watch for [Jesus].
From Chapter SixHe holds us in the moment of reckoning
Heroes and Villains
“The crowd chants / The dice tumble and click / The soldiers dance / The spearheads clang on their sticks…”
Is there really no place without a song?
From Chapter Seven
Leaving and Returning
“No greater pain has befallen me in ministry than the untimely departure of my friends.”
The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — three distinct persons — dance together in unity as the One True God. This, indeed, is a beautiful mystery.
From Chapter Eight
Wounds and Wonder
“Down in the hollows — / In the dark night’s soul — / A pinprick of light / Shines ephemeral.”
When I turn my mind to the many torments of our sin-tortured world, I wonder if beauty is the deepest cut of all.
From Chapter NineHe turns our hearts toward hope again
Reading and Responding
“The turn of a story is never its end; it is only the opening of a door unto a fresh sense of abandon.”
He waits for us in the garden — but do we know how to hear His voice?
From Chapter Ten
Honesty and Honor
“Love never falls to ruin.”
Imagine being locked in that embrace, your body mingling with God’s as you struggle after favor you do not deserve.
From Chapter Eleven
Baptism and Becoming
“I knock on the paint-chipped door of the old congregational church in White Hall, Michigan, but the building is silent.”
The story turns in these waters…it would be the end…if it weren’t a new beginning.
From Chapter TwelveOn old mountain routes, travelers stack stones where the path grows faint — each cairn a quiet word from someone who has walked ahead: this is the way; it can be done. If Jesus Mysterium met you somewhere on your road, leave a stone here for the next pilgrim.
You cannot walk the road for someone else —
but you can put the map in their hands.
Think of the one who came to mind as you scrolled: the friend in the in-between, the parent, the skeptic, the seeker standing at a threshold. Invite them to join you on the pilgrimage.
Give the BookThe Heirloom Edition · original art by Marissa Rose · Smyth-sewn binding · gold foil emboss · archival paper · oxblood ribbon bookmark