Try to find pleasure in a speed you’re not use to. Changing the way you do routine things allows a new person to grow inside of you.
-Paulo Coelho, The Pilgrimage
In about a month, my team will be on the Camino De Santiago. It’s one of the major Christian pilgrimages, a route leading to the tomb of St. James, and usually taking around 2 months to complete on foot. Our team will only be spending 10 days on the Camino, traveling by foot from town to town, just experiencing a taste of the pilgrimage that Christians have been traveling for centuries.
I’ve been excited about The Camino from the beginning of my application process. Pilgrimage had become something that I desired, at a deep level, as I finished up my time in youth ministry. When a person embarks on a pilgrimage, they are setting off on a journey with soul implications. There’s a desire for deep, life changing transformation, a hope to see oneself more clearly, a need to encounter God in the disruption of life routines. Usually a pilgrimage is a physical journey toward a spiritually significant artifact, or symbol of faith, although it doesn’t always have to be this way. It’s a choice to pursue God in the journey and to create space, in the unknown, to meditate on his vastness and claim his nearness.
The quote at the top of the page pretty accurately sums up my entire goal for coming on the race: Go at a speed I’m not used to. Change up my routine. Create space for God to pull my truest self to the surface. As I look toward the Camino, I’m full of anticipation, knowing that it has the potential to be a powerful symbol of what my experience on this year long journey has already been and will continue to be: pIlgrimage.
As I reflect on my year so far, I see God’s hand all over it. I think back to sacred conversations in Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia, and already in Eastern Europe, with people who may not even know that they’re seeking something. I’ve talked with strangers about pain, loss, self-doubt, hopes and dreams, immense joy, significant faith questions, and everything in between. I’ve made friends that I never would have expected to make, hugged people that my country wants me to hate, and I’ve heard some of the most captivating stories as people have shared their lives with me.
I can also recall long bus rides, hikes, or moments by the ocean searching for God’s voice in the silence, his whisper in the ocean’s crashing waves, and his presence in my heavy breathing as I struggle up a mountain. I can think back to worship settings in Bangkok, Georgetown, and Jeffery’s Bay when God communicated his love to me in incredibly personal and tangible ways, reminding me of his sonship, challenging me to let go of idols I’ve held for too long, and teaching me to hear his voice.
I’ve struggled through language barriers, juggled currency conversion rates in my head, learned to navigate strange cities, broken bread with and depended on the hospitality of strangers, and walked in community with my squadmates.
And through it all, I’m learning to move at a different pace, to see the world and myself differently, and to trust the voice of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. My routine has been shaken to its core, and it’s been exactly what I’ve needed for this season. It’s all been pilgrimage.
Now as I look at my new team’s upcoming journey, I look with anticipation. Over the next two months, my team will be moving all over Europe on our way to the Camino in Spain, and I couldn’t be more excited about the journey. Sometimes it feels tedious and the travel days take their toll, but that’s ok, because the pursuit of comfort has never given me anything, and pursuing God has always given me everything.
If you’d like to continue praying for me, I’d love for you to pray that God would continue the work that he’s started, and that this journey would make me more receptive. Pray that any walls that I’ve built up between God and those around me might be torn down and that I’d continue to step into intimacy and hospitality. Pray that God might be able to use my experience in my own year-long pilgrimage to speak life into those I encounter along the way. And you can join me in praying for my team’s time on The Camino and in all of the countries that we’ll be visiting over the next two months.
Thanks for following my journey, and for the kind words, and prayers that are constantly coming my way! May you find a way to disrupt your pace today and look for the eternal all around you!
