Jul 30, 2026 · 33 min · 10 segments
As disciple-scholars, we embark on voyages of discovery and settlement, in which we look for landmarks to help us build a covenantal life…
A few years back, I was having dinner with the family of a graduate student, Clyde Yellis.
His father, Mark, is involved in the Polynesian Voyaging Society and now the Polynesian Cultural Center.
In his work, he and many others employ historically accurate navigational approaches to sail double-hulled canoes thousands of miles across the Pacific without Western instrumentation.
They use celestial navigation and knowledge of oceanography and natural history to cross ancient routes traveled by their ancestors.
Mark, in a moment of clarity that captured my imagination, summarized the work of navigation when he said, on the deck of the canoe, the navigator daily makes thousands of observations to make hundreds of choices to answer two questions at sunrise and sunset.
Where are we and what is our heading? Those same two questions should animate each of us spiritually.
We should daily ask, as a disciple and a scholar, what are the observations and choices that I'm making that tell me where I am and where I'm heading? I have deep admiration for the skill of ancient and modern Polynesian voyagers.
Centuries before Europeans crossed the relatively mild Atlantic, Polynesians discovered hundreds of scattered islands, then developed a complex network of commerce stretching from Samoa to Hawaii, Tahiti to Rapa Nui, Rarotonga to New Zealand.
I've begun to grasp that, anciently, there were two distinctive types of Polynesian voyaging, voyages of discovery and voyages of settlement.
Voyages of discovery were propelled by curiosity and subtle signs in the environment to find new lands.
Voyages of settlement, on the other hand, used landmarks, including celestial guides, marine currents, and other landmarks determined by prior voyages of discovery to guide their travels.
In these two types of voyages, discovery and settlement, we find models for the path each of us must follow as disciple scholars.
A few years back, I was having dinner with the family of a graduate student, Clyde Yellis.
His father, Mark, is involved in the Polynesian Voyaging Society and now the Polynesian Cultural Center.
In his work, he and many others employ historically accurate navigational approaches to sail double-hulled canoes thousands of miles across the Pacific without Western instrumentation.
They use celestial navigation and knowledge of oceanography and natural history to cross ancient routes traveled by their ancestors.
Mark, in a moment of clarity that captured my imagination, summarized the work of navigation when he said, on the deck of the canoe, the navigator daily makes thousands of observations to make hundreds of choices to answer two questions at sunrise and sunset.
Where are we and what is our heading? Those same two questions should animate each of us spiritually.
We should daily ask, as a disciple and a scholar, what are the observations and choices that I'm making that tell me where I am and where I'm heading? I have deep admiration for the skill of ancient and modern Polynesian voyagers.
Centuries before Europeans crossed the relatively mild Atlantic, Polynesians discovered hundreds of scattered islands, then developed a complex network of commerce stretching from Samoa to Hawaii, Tahiti to Rapa Nui, Rarotonga to New Zealand.
I've begun to grasp that, anciently, there were two distinctive types of Polynesian voyaging, voyages of discovery and voyages of settlement.
Voyages of discovery were propelled by curiosity and subtle signs in the environment to find new lands.
Voyages of settlement, on the other hand, used landmarks, including celestial guides, marine currents, and other landmarks determined by prior voyages of discovery to guide their travels.
In these two types of voyages, discovery and settlement, we find models for the path each of us must follow as disciple scholars.
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