“Come Follow Me”  Jesus

“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.” Psalm 23

How do you see your life? 

More specifically, how do you see your faith life?

Ever since I went to Iona in 2015 I have seen mine as a pilgrimage.

A pilgrimage is different from a walk, a hike, a trip, a vacation.  A pilgrimage is a purposeful and sacred journey into the Ineffable Mystery of God. The result of pilgrimage is spiritual transformation and eternal translation.

I would guess that many followers of Christ set out thinking or hoping that it will be a walk in the park. Nothing could be further from the truth.  The truth of The Call of Jesus, “Whoever desires to follow Me must deny himself and take up his cross.”  Denial and Cross implies a perilous pilgrimage, not a pleasant stroll.  Following are some of the obstacles that I believe one can expect to encounter along The Way.

The Pit of Despair  I got this one from “The Princess Bride.”  That’s where Prince Humperdinck has Wesley thrown. It is a place of ultimate suffering.  The life of Christ was one of suffering seen and expressed in many ways (short on space I’ll leave you to do the research.}  So if we’re following Christ, why WOULDN’T there be suffering involved?  What suffering, what despair, have you encountered on your path?

The Lake of Lachrymose  Any readers of “A Series of Unfortunate Events” will recognize this one.  Lachrymose is a word which here means “great sadness and shedding of tears.”  Even Jesus cried at the death of His beloved friend Lazarus.  Why wouldn’t we?  “In this world you will have great sadness, but your sadness will be turned to joy.”

The Glade of Grief  Not merely the name of an air freshener, a glade is a broad, open space; a meadow.  It can represent a wonderful place to sit and ponder the beauty that surrounds one.  But when grief descends it can become like a glade that causes us to sit and wallow in our sadness and misery.  Maybe that would be another name for it—the Meadow of Misery.  Here is where Christ becomes so comforting, because he traversed this same land.  As a man of sorrows, as the prophet Isaiah describes Him, He paused in that same glade, grieving not for Himself, but for each of us.  So to me that means that as I sit in this glade, I do so not alone.  For He is with me.

The Moor of Mishaps A few years ago my friend Dan, an experienced mountain climber when he was younger stumbled on a relatively simple hike he was on.  He was bruised, bloodied, and though he didn’t break any bones, he was certainly banged up.  It seemed ironic to me that a man who had tackled very difficult climbs, could fall on such a smooth path.  But isn’t that just the way it is.  We are walking along in life, and suddenly, unexpectedly, we trip and fall.  It is life and is to be expected.  Christ fell under the weight of the cross.  He had Simon of Cyrene to help Him up.  Who is your Simon?

The Craigs of Crises Aside from the spelling, this word in English is EXACTLY like the Greek word—Krisis—from which it is derived.  It is usually translated as “judgment,” but another meaning is “turning point.”  I like that, don’t you?  Crises are certain to come in this life.  They came in the life of Jesus, so why should we expect anything different.  The question is how we will handle them when faced with them.  How is it that a crisis can be a turning point for us.  How can a disaster be transformed into something sacred?

The Valley of the Shadow of Death I’ll end with this one, because death marks the end of the pilgrimage.  At least this side of eternity.  Death comes to everyone, so why does death seem so surprising to us?  Death is part of life, so why do we fight so hard to resist it?  Death is the final act of surrender; the final emptying; the final opportunity to be rid of our “self” and to be filled with God.  Death is the pilgrim’s portal which opens into life.  Again, that was/is the path of Christ.  So why should mine be any different?  You’ve probably heard the interpretation of the 23^rd Psalm that says “Yea, though I walk THROUGH the valley of the shadow of death. . .”  With intentional emphasis placed on the THROUGH part.  Death is not a dead end.  In fact, it could quite possibly be the beginning of the Pilgrim’s path that we are on.  May it be so.

So again, how do you see your life? How do you see your faith life?

Last thought: One of the most influential books I’ve read along these lines is entitled “The Alchemist” by Paul Coelho. It is the story of Santiago, a young Spanish shepherd who goes in search of a treasure that he has seen in a dream. He faces numerous obstacles on his journey. At the risk of giving some of the story away, I will simply say that the treasure that he finds is himself. And the lesson that he learns is that life is a long pilgrimage from fear to love.

“Life is a long pilgrimage from fear to love.”