As my wife and myself make our way to Santiago de Compostela, we pray this prayer for the group we’re leading, and for fellow pilgrims we will soon meet for the first time along the way. This old, old invocation was written especially for pilgrims:

God, you called your servant Abraham from Ur in Chaldea, watching over him in all his wanderings, and guided the Hebrew people as they crossed the desert. Guard these your children who, for the love of your Name, make a pilgrimage to Compostela.

Be their companion on the way, their guide at the crossroads, their strength in weariness, their defense in dangers, their shelter on the path, their shade in the heat, their light in darkness, their comfort in discouragement, and the firmness of their intentions, that through your guidance they may arrive safely at the end of their journey and, enriched with grace and virtue, may return to their homes filled with salutary and lasting joy.

We all walk a challenging journey through life. These humble thoughts are too good to keep only for a specific pilgrimage, but make for good praying for all who follow the way of Jesus.

Many blessings as you walk your path today.

Camino de Santiago 2023

This week me and my wife and a group of soon-to-be friends embark on the Camino de Santiago. We will hike the final portion of the trail, covering 70 miles in 6 days. This is our fifth group to lead, and we’re super excited. Long days of unhurried walking make for unique bonding experiences.

For twelve hundred years, people in search of God walked this same path. As the years passed, Psalm 121 became known as the Pilgrim’s Psalm:

I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber or sleep.

The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand. The sun will not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all evil—he will watch over your life. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.

The words of the psalmist sink deep into the heart of a pilgrim, walking mile after mile towards an unknown destination.

Of course, you don’t have to walk the Camino de Santiago to appreciate these verses. We all journey as a pilgrim through life, and it’s good to remember who to look to for help.

Camino de Santiago 2023

Photo by Beth, a friend and past pilgrim

Have you ever practiced selective listening? Certainly as a teen-ager, when parents gave detailed instructions, some of which were immediately ignored. At work this occurs regularly, and in a marriage—honey, what was that you said again? The house is on fire?

I don’t believe Solomon practiced selective listening when David exhorted him to build a temple to the Lord. Perhaps selective remembering better describes Solomon’s life. Here’s David’s charge on the eve of his death:

My son Solomon, acknowledge the God of your father, and serve him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches every heart and understands every desire and every thought. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will reject you forever. Consider now, for the Lord has chosen you to build a house as the sanctuary. Be strong and to the work.

Solomon followed through on the temple construction, creating one of the wonders of the ancient world. But Solomon lost his way in regards to devotion. With the temple project complete, the riches of the world and his fascination with foreign women turned his heart.

Which do you think the Lord preferred? A magnificent temple dedicated in his honor, or the heart of a king fully devoted to him?

Guard your heart. It matters more than cathedrals.

1 Chronicles 18 in reading the Bible in 2023

Photo by Diane Picchiottino

I don’t stop to consider the concepts of sin and righteousness all that often. I doubt most others do either, even those of us who spend a great deal of time in religious work. But work does not always lead to contemplation, and so I gloss over my attitudes and actions displeasing to the Lord.

Paul discussed sin and righteousness using the metaphor of slavery. When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.

Horribly strong word—slavery. Paul uses the concept to pound home his point. We live as either a slave to sin or a slave to God. No middle ground, no room for passivity, and no third way to escape the dichotomy.

Paul’s concludes with this well-known verse: For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

In the context of his argument we see the fullness of Paul’s thought. We either cash in our paycheck—we earn death, we’re not victims in a spiritual ponzi scheme—or we let God gift us eternal life as we enslave ourselves to Jesus the Lord.

Either way were slaves—whose chains do you prefer?

Romans 6 in reading the Bible cover to cover

Photo by Miltiadis Fragkidis