I Drove Cross-Country In Search Of Proof Of The Divine. I Found It In The Place I Least Expected.

It was August 2017, and I was on my way from North Carolina to Hopkinsville, Kentucky, where in a couple of days I’d witness my first total solar eclipse. Eight months earlier I’d set out on a pilgrimage with my two dogs, running away from home to live and travel in a 19-foot van in search of evidence of the Divine in a world where that seemed less and less likely.

After 14 years as a pastor, my faith had faltered, and during the next seven years working at a domestic violence and rape crisis center, it had given way altogether. Yet I missed the sense of presence that had sustained me through so many devastating losses, including the death of a sister and my infant son.

My solo cross-country journey had been deeply meaningful in many ways. I met an 86-year-old man walking 1,200 miles to raise money for cancer research and a former cop-turned-Buddhist who spoke of challenges in choosing nonviolence. In a quiet chapel on a Sedona hillside, my eyes pooled with tears as I listened to the murmur of prayers from broken and hopeful people. During the frequently lonely times, when my two dogs’ company wasn’t enough, there were the friends who were at the other end of the phone, cheering me on with support and encouragement and love.

But as I neared the end of my journey, I was still looking for that “big” moment of revelation, when I hoped to see unmistakable evidence of the Divine.

I’d reserved a spot in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, the point of greatest eclipse or, according to NASA, “where the axis of the moon’s shadow passes closest to the center of the earth.” In honor of that, Hopkinsville had officially changed its name to Eclipseville for the duration of the event. Vendors sold Mars and Milky Way candy bars, Moon Pies,