Journey Toward God
"Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage."
"Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage."
-- Psalm 84:5
What exactly is a pilgrimage? It's something we used to read about in literature class. But here it is in the Bible. So what does it mean for you and me?
I turned to my trusty Oxford American Dictionary. It says a pilgrimage is a pilgrim's journey made to a place as a mark of respect. Okay. So who is a pilgrim? Can I be one? The only pilgrims I know about came over on the Mayflower, something I didn't do no matter how I sometimes feel. Well, a pilgrim is a person who travels to a sacred or revered place as an act of religious devotion. My budget doesn't exactly allow for a trip to Jerusalem anytime soon but I could sure travel to my knees in search of God.
I think of a pilgrimage as a journey toward God. My Bible's footnotes say that growing strong in God's presence often follows a journey through barren land. I can see that so clearly. If we've never known the darkness, how can we ever see the light? And God is the light.
I want to spend my life on a pilgrimage to know Him. I want to read His Word and meditate. I want to study and learn with other believers. I want to open my mind to receive all He has for me, to travel the path He has laid out for me. That is my pilgrimage -- to follow God as a mark of love and respect.
No comments:
Post a Comment