National news these days is spotlighting a number of high-profile lawsuits. They address lightning-rod issues that call forth feelings or opinions of varying degrees of intensity.

Feelings around such issues can be seen as trail markers that invite us to climb higher spiritually. In walking a path with humility and a deep love of God, we can experience significant spiritual growth and support healing for ourselves and others.

Perhaps everything that happens in human life is an invitation, dressed up in the work clothes of a challenge, to awaken thought more fully to what is eternally true and real. Such awakening is being “born again,” in the words of Jesus (John 3:3), or putting off the old man and putting on the new, as the book of Ephesians in the Bible puts it (see 4:22–24). As we accept this invitation, we find God’s grace right here to guide us. And the trail markers along our path will have a feeling of sacredness, of peace, and of being just right.