What is El Camino De Santiago (The way of St. James)? Well, rather than rambling on about the history, I have attatched a link for you at the end of this blog. In short, we were walking about 12-18 miles every day! We would stay at places called Donativo’s – donation based or Albergues – 5 or more euros a night. The donativo’s were my personal favorite. We would generally cook together as a community and attend some form of a church service or prayer time. Most of the ministry we did was at the places we stayed or along our walks.
This walk was the closest I feel I have ever been to Jesus. When Jesus asked us to go and make disciples, he was asking that we live as he did! As I was walking one day I began to realize just how similar what we were doing was to what Jesus did in scripture. He walked from town to town, ministering along the way. We did this daily for almost three weeks!
I would often find myself complaining about my blisters, or my knees etc.. When I felt I couldn’t go on, I would think about Jesus- put the song “Give Me Faith” by Elevation on repeat and began to loudly sing “I may be weak but your spirits strong in me” – no shame. The song sort of became my anthem as I trudged on. Eventually, I would make it to my destination and be able to rest for a short while before running to the grocery store and dressing my blisters.
When you walk this much you have a lot of time to talk with the Lord and with new people. One of the big things I felt the Lord speaking was about my health and the health of my family. In order to minister to people while walking the camino you have to be able to keep up with them…. This wasn’t exactly something I was good at doing… at least not in the beginning.
I began thinking about how intricately we are each designed; not a single person is the same. Each strand of hair, my eyes, my freckles, every little thing about me was designed by a perfect God. So why haven’t I been honoring his gift.
If someone were to buy me a brand new car (really, if you feel led don’t hold back), I would treat it with the upmost respect. I would clean it on a regular bases, wouldn’t allow food to be ate in it, would keep it somewhere safe and protected, pay a stupid amount of money for insurance.. etc… In the same way, the Lord has given me a body. I have the ability to go on hikes, write novels, play sports, laugh, eat, sleep, heck I even breathe without being thankful. Am I treating my body like the gift it is? Or am I neglecting what the lord has blessed me with?
Jesus gave me a vision of our family. Each of us walking in different cities, at different times, but together. We may not all live in the same household anymore but we are a unit. We move as a body, just as we do in our faith we should do in our physical.
So I contacted my family… The result was wonderful.
For every day I walked on the Camino, my family walked with me. Though we are apart, we are still bound together in love. I just thought this was really cool and wanted to share the beauty of unity and health! My prayer is that the body of Christ would fall in sync with a love that keeps us unified all over the world, that we would hold each other accountable in our health, not just physically but spiritually as well!
http://www.americanpilgrims.org/history
