Pilgrimage

Recently, I taught a Wednesday series on ancient spiritual disciplines using (dare I say),
a book by Brian McClaren (My apologies to my academic friends). One night we discussed
fasting, another night I spoke on the table. The hardest topic to bring meaning to 20th century protestants living in rural East Tennessee was pilgrimage.

I touched on the classic ideas of Christian pilgrimage to the Holy Land or Vatican, Islamic Hajj, and even internal pilgrimage such as silent meditative prayer or using a labyrinth. I shared about my experience in a monastery and that a trip to Taize is on my bucket list. All that evening I got blank stares. Finally, at the end of the evening I polled the people about what kind of pilgrimage they would go on. I found that if it were entertaining then they would go. A play at the Cumberland Playhouse was good. "We have taken a trip to the Fields of the Woods" said another. I sighed. Doesn't anyone understand the need to disrupt life so that we can hear the voice of God?

Since my seminary experience, I have been on a spiritual pilgrimage, listening for God and setting aside my old theological baggage as much as possible to become an empty vessel for God to fill. I try to read authors which don't fit the mold of mid 20th century Bible belt America. Authors like Brennan Manning, Shane Claiborne, and NT Wright sit on my shelf. I am becoming someone which I wasn't at the beginning of the journey and I am learning a lot about God's grace and love.

While I romanticize my own spiritual discipleship, I should also remember that we are all pilrims on a journey. We are being molded and reshaped into the Christian followers of Christ that we were intended to become. Preordained? Perhaps, but I prefer to think about it in Wesleyan terms of achieving that which we lost in the fall... the original blueprint of humanity, designed in God's image. Along the way, I am sure to take some side roads, get lost (figuratively speaking) and probably get turned around. But with God as my guide, walking in the footsteps of the savior, with the Holy Spirit as my roadmap... I'll get there someday.