There
are times when it is very hard to express with words all that we want to
say. The bible says of those times that
sometimes we groan with the very weight of that burden. For me to express my
sense of thankfulness is one of those moments. I have so much to say thank you
for. I had a wonderful trip, a pilgrimage an adventure. I had three months when
I didn’t have to do anything over much… a time to rest, to read, to reflect…
and occasionally cook the dinner for Sarah and Debbie… (truth is they didn’t
always appreciate my culinary efforts! But I was trying.) From my trip to
Lindisfarne and beyond I have now raised £4,000 and the figure just seems to
keep going up daily. It was a real privilege
to be given the time to do the trip, it was great fun and gave me an incredible
sense of achievement… and somehow I feel I am being rewarded so generously for
something that was good in and of itself, I say it again, thank you.
There
are many things I could write about what I’m learning about pilgrimage but I
will confine myself to one: transformation.
A pilgrimage is a journey with a difference, the difference being that
we are meant to be changed by the experience. For me it wasn’t about the
arriving… although that was quite something.. {read my blog for more info on
the arrival http://revgoonersteve.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/arriving.html
} the real adventure was the taking part, to set of each day not quite knowing
where I was going, not knowing who I would meet, how the roads or the weather
would be. It was exciting to realise that each day I had to trust a mixture of
God and myself. Whatever anyone may say God didn’t push the pedals.. he did occasionally
send the wind, although if I’m honest there were several days when he blew in
the wrong direction! (Quite hard!) On the other hand I almost never felt alone
on the bike. For company I had the rolling hills and the sky and oftentimes the
sea on my East, there were birds and hedgerows, and canals and cottages and
somehow amongst them all the brooding powerful presence of God. God allows us
to travel with him, to catch a glimpse of what he always sees and perhaps in
that, to give us a glimpse of the fullness of his heart. It is from that glimpse into the fullness of
God that transformation occurs. It may have been me doing the pedalling but
somehow the appetite, the appreciation, the eyes that wondered the ears that
learnt to listen a little better to the strangers I met on the way, all these came
from him.
Many
people have said to me, Oh you’ve lost weight, or you look well. Truth is I
lost very little weight, even though I cycled well over a 1,000 miles climbing probably
100,000 feet in the process! I didn’t lose any weight, but I will concede that
my weight changed. I am now better equipped for the adventure of pilgrimage.
I want to remain a pilgrim. Each
day is new and uncertain, none of us knows what encounters and experiences
await. We do have to take many of the steps through the day ourselves, but when
we do, it is possible to become aware that even in our familiar circumstance we
are never alone. Pilgrimage, a life with
a purpose, is so much more fun than just a journey. I am convinced that God is
looking to travel with his pilgrims again. We are called to be a Pilgrim
church, called out of our comfort zones to things that are new and exciting and
which can also appear daunting. Someone
text me and said: “Stephen, we are proud of you, you did it for all of us.” I still can’t believe I did do it, that I
overcame the hills and the sheer mileage and minutiae that separated me at the
outset, but I did. In the same way I want to text all of Zion and say: “Zion, I
am proud of you, you did it for me.” You see as I was on my journey you were on
yours, and God accomplished many things through you and in you whilst I was
away. Not least staying vaguely calm and
united as a church without a building meeting in a temporary worship space
which doesn’t quite fit!
My final thank you is to those
who kept you all moving on pilgrimage while I was away. I have no sense that
Zion has rolled backwards or backslidden, quite the reverse. Together I sense
you have pressed on, sometimes a little excited and sometimes apprehensive. You did exactly what I learnt to do on my
pilgrimage… keep going! Paul expressed the same lesson in Phil3:12ff:
Not that I have already obtained
this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because
Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But
one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what
lies ahead, 14 I press on towards the goal for the
prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
