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God’s Faint Path: Mystical Wisdom from the Deeper Journey is an independent publication launched in November 2023 by Gregg Burch. If you subscribe today, you'll get full access to the website as well as email newsletters. Stay up to date with new content sent straight to your inbox! No more worrying about whether you missed something because of a pesky algorithm or news feed. Your subscriptions inspire me to keep reading, writing and publishing, and allow God’s Faint Path: Mystical Wisdom from the Deeper Journey to continue to exist. Thank you!

Why God’s Faint Path?

My mentor, Charlotte Roberts, asked me, “Why God’s Faint Path? Why not God’s Faith Path?” I replied, “For me, it has been a faint path.“ The name comes from a path around the lake at my friend Richard Kessler’s place on the Savannah River. I went for a weekend retreat each year with a small group of friends for decades. Over time, the path grew fainter and fainter. I would walk the trail, and suddenly realize I had wandered off the path. I would turn around and return until I found it again. Then I would peer into the woods looking for the faint path again. this poem describes the path:

Traveler, There is No Road

Traveler, your footprintsare the only road, nothing else.

Traveler, there is no road; you make your own path as you walk.

As you walk, you make your own road, and when you look back you see the path you will never travel again.

Traveler, there is no road; only a ship’s wake on the sea.

Antonio Machado, There Is No Road.

Isn’t that a great metaphor for life? We think we are on the path, when we find ourselves lost and off in the wrong direction. When I read Carlos Castenada’s The Teaching of Don Juan as a young man, the Yaqui sorcerer told Carlos, “For each of us, there is a path with a heart. To find and follow that path is the warrior’s way.” That time was a time of searching for me, taking a tour of all world religions. Don Juan set me looking for the Path with a Heart.

Well, the last 50 years, it seems like I’ve spent more time wandering in the woods than on the Path. But, from time to time, I would wander across the Path, and the energy was incredible. Those brief interludes made me yearn and search even harder.

All this culminated in 2011, when I wrote my book God’s Faint Path: Wilderness Lessons on Leadership and Life. It was a reflection of my first half journey, as I was being drawn into the deeper journey that results in this work.

About Gregg Burch

Born and reared in Atlanta, Georgia. My spiritual yearning grew as I reached adulthood, and was troubled by a sad question: Is this all there is? Met and married Genie when I was 21 and she was 18. A few years later, Florrie and Andy came along, completing our family.

I worked for 25 years with my brother Travis in the family business; selling, renting and repairing heavy construction equipment. After our father died, we grew the business to 11 locations and 300 people on our team. And yet, I still felt unsettled, never overcoming the belief I was not good enough.

By the time I was baptized at age 28, I had come to my first long range vision. I would work to create financial security, and then walk away at age 45 to live into some kind of calling, finding purpose and peace.

One of my regrets was that I did not finish college. My brother graduated Vanderbilt, and my sister Duke, and I dropped out as soon as the draft ended to get married. So, to prepare for my second career, I spent two years at Georgia State University getting an Executive MBA. I was one of three in our class of 50 without an undergraduate degree. Finished the program in ‘98 and sold the business in ‘99.

I began a consulting practice, but was not inspired consulting with business. I redirected my efforts at helping churches set strategy, vision and goals. That, too, was unsatisfying. Changing culture in churches proved as hard or harder than changing the culture at our business.

Soon, we bought land in the Front Range of Colorado, and build an off grid log home. As I walked this land, God revealed my calling in the form of an image. I was a man standing with a foot in two worlds: the world of secular leadership, and the world of God’s Kingdom. I was holding a large conduit in my arms, and I discerned that my calling was to bring all I had learned of leadership in the secular world to equip next generation leaders for the Kingdom.

After spending nearly a decade trying to bring reformation to the Lutheran church, I hit a wall. A month on my back in pain told me I was off the path. We joined a Presbyterian church start near us in East Atlanta, and for a decade, I found the vehicle for my calling on staff at City Church Eastside. There I launched a course called Discover your Design, and from those I met, developed a coaching practice. I continue to coach pastors and professionals, working to integrate career, family, and spiritual journey into balanced life. I have made great friends on the journey.

At the end of 2024, God willing, I will celebrate 25 years in my second career to equal the 25 years I spent at the family business. I’ve made very little money, but the work has been more rewarding by far. It is my prayer and hope that those drawn to this site will find resources that inspire and draw them deeper in their spiritual journey. May it be so.