Clay in the Hands

I am a truly blessed man. I serve a church that values time for me to be away and allow God to renew my spirit. I have been blessed with a sabbatical to get away and focus on my relationship with Jesus.

Even more, I have a beautiful, understanding and supportive wife that is allowing me to do something that will challenge me beyond most things I have done in my life (as is already the case as I write this). For over 20 years, I have been drawn to a pilgrimage that has been part of thousands of faith journeys since the 9th century.

Today, there are many different routes to make it to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. But the first camino began with King Alfonso in the 9th century. So, being the purist that I am, I am in day 2 of the Camino de Santiago Primitivo. It is a 320 kilometer walk through northern Spain. For those (like me) that struggle with metric conversion, that is roughly 200 miles. If I stay on pace of 15 to 18 miles per day, I will arrive in Santiago in 13 days.

My hope over this period is to use this platform to share my experience as best I can. It will take months to fully process the experience, but each day I will spend time discerning what God is doing in my life and heart through this journey.

Day one was a day of learning to trust. I will hopefully have a post in the next day or two with all the ways God challenged me to trust Him, but for today, the word of God to me on day one was, “How about you trust in me and let go.” For those of you who know me well, you know that is an easy thing for me to preach and a very hard thing for me to actually do.

One of the sayings on the camino is, “the camino will provide.” The reality is, God will provide – every time.

There really is no map to follow – at least not one that really helps. So as the pilgrim walks, the eye is always looking for a yellow arrow or a shell turned a certain way. As I left Oviedo yesterday, this is the first one I encountered. It was to be one of hundreds along the way.

Just when the doubt begins to enter, “Did I take a wrong turn? Am I still on the path?” – there is an arrow or shell to assure that the pilgrim is making progress. More than once over the first two days, I asked, “God, I could really use a sign right about now” – and there it would be.

Be reminded today, God is in control and He simply asks you to trust Him. So often, the answer we are looking for is waiting for us when we simply turn to Him and trust.

¡Buen camino!