(By the way, clicking on these photos in our blog should enlarge them for you.)
My children have all told Wick and me that we have been super cheesy in our blogs. I say to them, “Thank you, I hope so.” They just laugh. I think they actually like us that way. I’m all about being cheesy if it means being authentic—telling people how much they mean to me, sharing “Aha” moments God has given me, and telling the story of a spiritual journey like the Camino.
We’ve been back from Spain a week now, are almost over our jetlag, and Wick and I are feeling much better after antibiotocs have crushed the intestinal bactieria wreaking havoc in our systems since we had some bad paella our last weekend in Santiago. It’s been great to see a lot of you and do familiar activities. I think this has been the longest time I have ever gone without driving a car, or cooking something, etc.
Of course that’s one of the ways God can use a pilgrimage experience in your life. This pilgrimage took me out of all of my routines and gave me the opportunity to see myself and others in a new frame. In that way God gave me new ‘self awareness.’
A pilgrimage also gives new ‘God awareness’ for similar reasons. At home I look at the basics of life as a given, but when I was on the Camino, whether walking or laid up with a hurt foot, I learned to trust God to provide even those basics—food, strength, shelter for the night, or shelter from a storm, a place to clean up, or enough bushes to screen my ‘bathroom break’ on the trail. Because I always needed at least one of these things all the time, I was forced to live and breathe from an ongoing, prayerful position with God. I talked to Him, either in my head or out loud when Wick, Hunter and I prayed together, all the time. This gave me a sense of God’s presence all the time, day after day.
Some of you have asked me, “Are you glad to be home?” And I have to pause to choose my words carefully. I am glad to see those of you, my friends and family, whom I love, glad to worship together, glad to rest and have God restore me physically. But I don’t want to lose that sense of God’s presence. By His grace I hope He will keep growing that awareness, even now that I’m home. As He began showing us even before we left for Spain, my life with God is a pilgrimage. He’s sovereign over every aspect of it, and allows what is best, even though what is best may not look best in my economy. It can be His way of shaking loose what He knows we don’t need and what is holding us back from knowing Him and His love in deeper ways.
Since I’ve been home I’ve had a great time going through the photos and video we brought back. (If you're interested, stay tuned for the video documentary I’ve begun. We'll get the word out somehow.) I’m so thankful for this record of our trip. As I look at these images and watch the video I’m struck by what an incredible feat this really was, and how much of God’s beauty we saw.
Before the trip I didn’t consider what an amazing physical accomplishment walking the Camino in 25 days would be. It was God’s grace that I did what I could do to condition myself, got the equipment we needed (many thanks to our friend Jody Hale, who gave us excellent counsel on every piece of equipment from our packs, to our boots, to our walking poles, to our socks and underwear, EVERYTHING), and set out to do it. By now you know that Hunter was the only one of us to actually do what we set out to do. But rather than be disappointed that I didn’t finish the walk, God gave me the grace to appreciate the buses and taxis I was able to use when I couldn’t walk. (I think I was in too much pain to be disappointed.)
In our packs we carried a New Testament and a small devotional with excerpts from the writings of Henri Nouwen. After my foot got bad and I had to stop walking, I “just happened” to read, “Your pain, seen in the light of a spiritual journey, can be interpreted…Interruptions are not disruptions of your way to holiness, but rather are places where you are being molded and formed into the person God calls you to be. You know you are living a grateful life when whatever happens is received as an invitation to deepen your heart, to strengthen your love, and to broaden your hope. You are living a grateful life when something is taken away from you that you thought was so important and you find yourself willing to say, “Maybe I’m being invited to a deeper way of living.” Author Ruth Myers says something like, ‘Don’t see interruptions as intruders. Welcome them as friends.’
I thank God for all of you who prayed for us. Godspeed you all along on your life journeys, and may God give you all a pilgrim’s perspective, whether He takes you on a pilgrimage or not.
God's Peace,
Helen
