The Way is Made by Walking
Pilgrimage is one of my new passions. It first got my attention when I read a book by Paul Boers — The Way is Made by Walking. It was his reflections on walking the 500 mile Camino De Santiago route in Spain. When I read it, I heard the urge to go for a long walk.
Boers defines pilgrimage as “religiously motivated travel for the purpose of meeting and experiencing God with hopes of being shaped and changed by the encounter.” This was my hope this summer as I set off for Melrose, Scotland with my daughter. Our 65 mile walk took us through many villages, past castles and abbeys. We began and ended on two of the most famous Celtic thin places (places where it seems the phyical and spiritual worlds are closer and there is a history of interaction with God in those places). I did not know what to expect from a thin place. Would I hear a voice? Would I get ideas that I had not before known? The answer is I experienced a deep emotional openness and peace. The night before we started our walk, we were in Melrose whose abbey was just a few feet away from our bed and breakfast. I woke up in the middle of the night with a longing to return to a place that I had not yet left. As I read my journal now, the question I had then was “Is this what the relationship God has called me to? Nothing spectacular, simply a place to sit and rest?
For me, the pilgrimage is a place to find healing in the ordinary. I can do nothing each day but put one foot in front of the other until I finish my days task. I cannot change my circumstance only contiue on as the path leads me. Each day I am given resurrection as my sleep turns my tiredness and brokenness into strength for another day. I started our journey with a deep sadness and a hope for an encounter. I ended with healing and peace. The encounter was not spectacular or awe inspiring. It was a stillness that came from the walk. I continue each day to yearn for my next walk and just maybe another day in Melrose.
Where are you going? What do you wish to encounter? What adventure would bring you peace? Have you taken a pilgrimage? What is it about this experience that grips my heart and changes me?
February 26th, 2010 at 2:32 pm
I pray that we can take the time to work through your questions here at CQM, Greg. Do you believe that being called into “sitting and resting” is true for us all? Does it depend on who you are?
February 26th, 2010 at 10:29 pm
It may be that we have to be busy and active to come to the place where we are able to sit. But I think there may be a need to define sitting and resting. I think we tend to vascilate between extremes. We are either going full speed and trying to change the world and make big contributions or we sit and do nothing. Sitting and resting does not mean that I don’t live a life, use my gifts to create meaningful interactions, help those who come within my path. It does mean that I need to really trust that God is working and I don’t need to control things, change things, define things or even produce things. I can just take what life brings my way. I can just use my gifts to the scale that opportunity is presented to me. I don’t have to make or generate the opportunities.
It takes a real trust to not run ahead. The Jews never quite got it. “The Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says, ‘Only in returning to me and waiting for me will you be saved. in quietness and confidence is your strength. But you would have none of it. You said, ‘No we will get our help from Egypt. They will give us swift horses. Is. 30:15-16.
I’m just thinking out loud.
March 7th, 2010 at 7:34 pm
Hi, Greg:
I’m touched to see that the definition on pilgrimage works work for you. I’ve also been to Melrose and Cuthbert’s Way. Blessings to you, pilgrim brother.