Interruptibility. A lesson the Lord has been teaching me the whole Camino—heck, the whole race.
I came into this last month with the single expectation of processing and having time alone with the Lord. And although those things are good, necessary and they did happen, that wasn’t all the Lord had for me. I had to quickly let go of that expectation when we began to see people on the trail. People who wanted to talk, get to know others and sometimes practice English and learn about our culture.
The crazy thing is, I usually love those things…but after a year of travel, constant community, and lots of ministry and pouring out, I was ready for alone time—or so I thought.
The first time the Lord broke down my wall of ‘aloneness’ was when I met Sun. I talked about him in a past blog and he was the first who the Lord really used to break down my complete desire to be alone. He wanted to talk, sing, think out loud and get to know me. He was fascinated by my culture and I by his. We talked about Jesus, the joy he saw in me and where it came from and so much more. Sun blessed my life. And from that moment, the Lord told me that I was going to have to be interruptible in the Camino. 28 days of interruptibility when I thought I would be alone. I began to prepare my heart for this.
The next time the Lord continued to break down my wall of ‘aloneness’ was with Göeran from Germany. A kind, soft spoken, cultured German man who loves Jesus. It was one of those days that was hard. The walk was hard, I was in a lot of pain and honestly, I was over it. And then Göeran caught up to me and he slowed down a little while I sped up. We matched each other’s pace and walked for almost 2 hours together talking about faith, what Christianity to me looks like and what we’ve been doing the last 11 months. He was inspired and touched by our dedication to Jesus but I was inspired by him—by his interruptibility, his desire to learn and love for other cultures. I knew that the Lord was going to continue giving me opportunities to be interruptible but I still wasn’t completely excited about it.
Then, Francesca. Oh man, sweet, sweet Francesca. This girl touched my heart in some way that is, in all honesty, unexplainable, but I’ll try. Maddie and I started this day walking together. As I hobbled on my injured leg, I told Mads she could walk ahead and she did a little while later. There was a sweet Italian girl who had stayed at our albergue the night before who had caught up to me and then slowed her pace to match mine. I had to go to the bathroom SO bad and I just wanted her to pass me so I could go and she wouldn’t. I was getting really annoyed just thinking, ‘would you pass me already?’
And then the Lord said, ‘she wants to talk to you.’
I was still frustrated but began to let go of it. Just a few moments later, she said, ‘why are you doing the Camino?’ And then the blessings began. We talked about our reasons for doing the Camino, my passion for Jesus, what Christianity is to me and how my relationship with Jesus is so different from religion. She told me about her family and we wept together. I told her how the blood of Jesus, because of His love, is what covers our sins, not the good or bad that we do. I could see this completely breaking down all ideas she had in the past because it wasn’t what she was taught. We walked. We talked. We cried. We laughed. I blessed her and boy, oh boy did she bless me. At the end of our walk, we snapped a picture and I invited her to my home and she invited me to hers. I pray that one day I get to visit my sweet friend in Florence and see how the Lord has changed her life.
Sometimes I think about those days and I thank the Lord for making me interruptible…even when I didn’t want to be. Sometimes I thank the Lord for giving me an injury because it slowed me down just enough to allow me to see opportunities I wouldn’t have had.
