Never thought of myself as a Pilgrim!

Okay pilgrims,
So how is the homework coming? When I get started, I have trouble stopping at the end of one lesson. It's like I'm afraid if I don't keep going, I won't have time to get back to it and then class day will be here and I won't be finished!!!! SO, I do like three days at a time! I'm probably not the best example of how to do bible study, but it works for me. I share that with you to encourage you to do what works for you. Don't get discouraged because you homework time isn't 'consistant' (whatever that is!) It is a joke with my family and most of my friends that I live in 15 minute increments. That means, I have a general plan but nothing is really concrete. I can change my plans on a dime. I guess that is just a survival mechanism that evovled from juggling seven peoples schedules in my house. There is nothing consistent in my whole life, save one thing-that God loves me right where I am. That is somewhat amazing to me. Probably the most amazing thing about God really. In my mind, it is hard to separate the way humans love from the way God loves. Ours is so conditional! If you make me feel good, or do something for me, or do things the way I think is right, then my love is extended. If you do something that hurts me, offends me, or takes something away from me (like a parking place at Walmart), then I withdraw it. Wow, I have so much to learn about love!

I guess that's why it is so easy for me to love God. I know that He doesn't extend love and then withdraw from me when I disappoint or offend Him. I love, that, even though He loves me right where I am, His desire for me is not to stay there! In the bible study "Experiencing God" by Henry Blackaby, he states, "you can not move on with God and stay where you are." As we have already learned in the first part of our bible study, Stepping Up, the Isrealites had to move. They had to go on this pilgrimage to meet God.

I never really thought much about the word pilgrimage, until today. When we hear the word pilgrim in America, we usually think of the same thing-The Mayflower and Thanksgiving. The fact is, they were called pilgrims because they were on a journey-moving to a new place, a new frontier, the unknown! The journey had to be at best, uncomfortable. They probably had a thousand different emotions (everyday). I wonder how many thought they had made a mistake? 'This is too hard!'; I wonder how many thought, "I'll never make it!" I wonder how many wanted to go back? Back to the known!

Our spiritual walk is now a pilgrimage! It takes us into the unknown. If you ever think, 'I made a mistake', or 'I never make it', remember, we are not on this journey alone. God is guide and God always leads us to life!

I've been to Africa three times and each time I have had the privilege of going on a safari. Part of the safari was a drive on a vehicle I affectionately called 'chitty chitty bang bang'. I named it that because, it acted like it never wanted to start, when it did, it made many 'funny' noises as we went along, and it looked like it was 100 years old. Our team of women crossed a river on a pontoon boat and then climbed onto 'chitty chitty bang bang' with our guide, Victor (a Zambian). He drove for about an hour and a half away from our lodge into this vast open space over clumps of tall grasses, around termite mounds, through ditches, bouncing up and down on 'chitty'. Then he stopped the vehicle and told us to get out. We did as we were told, he was the guide. He took a cooler from the back and opened it to reveal bottled cokes, coke light (diet) and orange Fanta! That was a surprise and a welcomed sight. He handed each of us a drink and then he said "Watch". We stood there in the middle of Africa, an hour an a half from the closest thing to civilization (and that was about 3 hours from 'real' civilization), holding a glass coke bottle. When we turned around, the most beautiful sunset you have ever seen was setting in the sky! You never forget something like that! Had we not trusted our guide, we would have missed it. He knew how to get us where we needed to go and he knew what we would miss if we didn't.

How about you? We have already picked up on the idea that this pilgrimage is about getting closer to God? Are you a little nervous, unsettled, excited, wondering what's ahead? Me too! But I trust our Guide and I'll just bet, He may stop the vehicle just long enough for us to get out, have a coke (or coke light) and see something spectacular! I'M EXPECTING IT!