5/4/18
Here, Friday evening, at the end of this week, I am feeling pretty whelmed (not overwhelmed, but definitely whelmed) by all that has happened in these 5 days. God has been at work in some seriously eye-opening ways……. so much so that, like the woman at the well, I had to seek out community and talk it through with a couple of people to see if they saw what I saw. ……… They affirmed my sense of what God is saying through circumstances and by his Spirit. A pastoral perspective and that of another Christian counselor both offered affirmation that God does indeed seem to be pointing toward something, or several somethings, specific. Hmmmmmm…… When I find myself in times like this, I struggle to wait, sit still and not anticipate, which can cause me to run ahead of God’s revelation and then have to back track to get back in a posture “walking humbly with God.” . Funny how that word has presented itself to me. “Do Not Anticipate.” I took someone to Bethlehem Camp on Thursday for an Emmaus weekend and, as those who have been know, you hear “Do Not Anticipate” about 20 times in the first 12 -24 hours! How appropriate that God would use awareness of what my pilgrim is experiencing to remind me that I am never done being a pilgrim in this life myself.
The staff with a scallop shell and a gourd of water is the symbol of St. James the Greater, said to have traveled all the way to the seashore of Spain from Jerusalem. How far will my pilgrimage take me from where I began? Only God knows.