Good morning…
This week I have run into one rare word twice, in the thought-provoking image above and in Henri Nouwen’s meditation below. Pilgrimage. This is a fresh word found in my everyday life.
“A pilgrimage is a journey, often into an unknown or foreign place, where a person goes in search of new or expanded meaning about their self, others, nature, or a higher good, through the experience,” says Wikipedia. “It can lead to a personal transformation, after which the pilgrim returns to their daily life.”
As we inch our way into the daily rhythms of our new fall schedule, what personal transformation are we bringing with us? We are journeying from one season to the next. How might you describe the new things you have learned with God this summer?
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DAILY MEDITATION | AUGUST 15, 2022 – We’re on a Pilgrimage by Henri Nouwen
Detachment is often understood as letting loose of what is attractive. But it sometimes also requires letting go of what is repulsive. You can indeed become attached to dark forces such as resentment and hatred. As long as you seek retaliation, you cling to your own past. Sometimes it seems as though you might lose yourself along with your revenge and hate—so you stand there with balled-up fists, closed to the other who wants to heal you. . .
Praying means, above all, to be accepting of God who is always new, always different. For God is a deeply moved God, whose heart is greater than our own. The open acceptance of prayer in the face of an ever-new God makes us free. In prayer, we are constantly on our way, on a pilgrimage. On our way, we meet more and more people who show us something about the God whom we seek. We will never know for sure if we have reached God. But we do know that God will always be new and that there is no reason to fear.
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What has let loose from you this summer? A once attractive addiction? Resentment. Hatred. Past pain.
Who have you recently met on your journey who is helping you to heal? Which spiritual friend is introducing you to fresh facets of our God who is making all things new? God is making all things new, including me and you.
And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also He said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true [they are accurate, incorruptible, and trustworthy].” And He said to me, “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the one who thirsts I will give [water] from the fountain of the water of life without cost (Revelation 21:4-6, AMP).
Prayer frees us into open acceptance of the God we seek. Detaching from all else, we sit still and take a pilgrimage into the heart of God who lives in the heart of us. Without cost, we drink deeply from the fountain of life and we are, bit by bit, made new. The welcoming words of God, whispered quietly in our ear, are faithful and true, incorruptible and trustworthy.
As summer begins to tip into fall, might you write down the transforming truth of your own pilgrimage with God?
The Lord answered me, “Write down what I show you…” (Habakkuk 2:2a, ERV).
…Sue…
