You may remember that some time ago I wrote a series around the theme of “Life as Pilgrimage”,which continues here.
Hence my interest in the title and theme of this book: “Journey – he way of the disciple”, by Richard Littlejohn. Richard is a Baptist minister in Newbury, Berks. and has tried to compare discipleship to the stages on a pilgrimage.
The book gets off to a bit of a slow start, but quickly gathers speed as the print pilgrimage takes us through the stages of leaving, finding provisions for the journey, our relationships with companions on the way, distractions, arriving at our goal and the return to ‘normality’.
I think the highlight of the book for me was chapter 7, “Journey’s End”, which is a sensitive and powerful piece about death and bereavement.
All in all, a very thoughtful book, peppered with quotes from other ‘pilgrim’ literature and a range of ‘walking’ literature which firmly embed it in the real world.
Definitely worth a read!
Pilgrimage
Ripples
Crossing the sands,
Walking the Pilgrim Path to Holy Island.
Today, no-one else in sight on the way
Trodden by countless feet in times past,
As the tides rise and fall in daily rhythm.
Crossing the sands,
Guided by the line of sea-washed posts
The sea, reluctant to withdraw,
Turns the sand into a sucking mire
Booby-trapped with sharp shards of shell.
Crossing the sands
Suddenly, ridges ripple and rise underfoot
The power of the waves fossilised
Like a sand artist’s raked patterns.
A firmer place for travellers’ feet,
Solid and dry in a sea of ooze.
And I imagine following the trail
Of some passing sea beast
Squirming on its belly
Towards the island.
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[8] But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Acts 1:8 (NIV)
Sometimes we make decisions with far-reaching consequences…
This year, instead of giving something up for Lent, I decided to take something on…the challenge to reflect on the journey to Jerusalem taken by Jesus and his closest friends leading up to events that some of us would say changed the world. It has been tougher than I expected, to daily set aside time not just to read but to try to think deeply and allow the words of scripture to become part of me. I may have missed the odd day of writing, and not every day has been a gem (maybe not many days), but I had made a decision and I have kept to it. I have been grateful for the guidance of John Pritchard, through his book of Lent meditations based on Luke’s account of Jesus’ life.
Bigger still on the cosmic scale of decisions with far-reaching consequences was the decision I took 50+ years ago to become a follower of Jesus. That journey has taken me to places I would not have expected but, despite sometimes long periods of doubt and disaster, today I am still choosing to be a follower of Jesus. Bible college didn’t manage to put me off (as it has for some of my friends), being a part of a church that sorely needs the grace of Jesus has wounded me and made me wary, but failed to diminish either my love for Jesus or my desire to join in Community with others who love him too. My love of evolutionary biology (particularly the evolution of the mind) only increased my sense of something ‘bigger’, and my desire to see the Bible as more than a forensic instruction book to be taken literally at every turn may have lost me friends but has enabled me to draw closer to a God who isn’t full of wrath and violence, as so many have been led to understand, but truly loves us…like the Book says.
I know I’ve influenced some lives for good too, in my small way, and hopefully been a reliable signpost to Jesus in my ‘down’ moments as well as my ‘up’ ones. I still don’t resemble Jesus as much as I’d like to…
In the meantime, I’m reminded of the story of the reporter who asked the elderly long-term resident in the village, “Have you lived here all your life?”
“Not yet!” was the reply.
Who knows where the road will yet take me? My journey has not finished yet. Following Jesus has influenced so much of my journey thus far, and it’s often been times when I’ve metaphorically taken my eyes off him that I’ve slipped up. Like the friendly stranger on the road to Emmaus, he has always walked with me, explaining where I’ve gone wrong and often illuminating my foolishness…but in such a lovely way.
And sometimes my heart has burned within me too (and not just with indigestion)…
“The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say”― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
Pilgrim Traveller 