A quiet invitation
I travel to Old Forge every week as a visitor, always arriving and leaving, never quite settled. In this way, I’m not so different from many who pass through—seeking a break from the noise, a pause between destinations. Beneath the sun-splashed lakes and mountains, though, quieter questions bubble up: Where do we belong? What really matters?
For some, these questions stir up old beliefs or old wounds—truths taught but never truly wrestled with. For others, it’s a vague ache, a longing for meaning that no news cycle or to-do list can satisfy. But what if these questions weren’t problems to solve, but invitations to explore?
Religion, heavy with striving and certainties, often leaves little room for questions. And yet, it’s the questions that have always led me to the same realization: we share more than we think—similar hopes, fears, and longings for something deeper than headlines or heated debates can offer. Perhaps the gift of true community is not that we all agree, but that we dare to listen, to share our stories, and to wonder together.
What if our differences weren’t walls but windows—each offering a different view of the same landscape? Maybe the way forward isn’t about choosing sides or clinging to familiar answers. Maybe it’s time to embrace a spirituality that welcomes all of who we are—our questions, doubts, and everyday struggles—into the light.
This kind of lake-and-mountain faith calls us to kindness—not because we have to, but because we see the sacred in each other and in the world around us. It finds God not bound in book or steeple but in the laughter of children, in honest conversations, in the woods at dusk. And, let’s be honest, maybe even in that second cup of coffee that saves some mornings.
This quiet invitation, if you’ve felt it, isn’t to a doctrine or a debate. It’s to a journey—a faith not merely believed but lived. A faith that meets us in the ordinary and transforms how we see the world. In a time when it’s easy to feel pulled apart, perhaps what we need most is to find ways to walk together—asking the questions that rise from the deep and discovering a hope that has room for us all.
- Lee Vance, Pastor, Niccolls Memorial Presbyterian Church (he/him)
