Pastor's Weekly Word

And Abram journeyed on by stages toward the Negeb. (Genesis 12:9)

By the time you read this, a group of 40 plus members and friends of Canyon Creek will be on a plane high over the Atlantic Ocean on our way to the Holy Land, myself included. The group has been meeting for lunch every month or so for a while now, getting to know one another better and learning about all that we will be doing. A good part of our preparation has been to think of the journey as one unlike any other. We are not tourists expecting to be entertained at every stop, though we will certainly look and act like tourists at times. We are not just observers of things completely foreign to us, though we will look and act like observers on occasion. We are pilgrims, seekers on a spiritual journey to the place where our Lord walked the earth many years ago.

A simple definition of a pilgrimage is, “a journey or search of moral or spiritual significance, typically to a shrine or other location of importance to a person's beliefs and faith” (Wikipedia). The difference between a tourist and pilgrim is that when a tourist comes back from a trip, not much is different. When a pilgrim returns from a spiritual journey, however, there is a noted change in them. Often a transformation has occurred when one has been on a pilgrimage.

We will try our best to keep from thinking of ourselves as tourists. We will try, instead, to journey on by stages. “Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah, pilgrim through this barren land” so the hymn goes. As our group rockets through the sky on our way to the places where Jesus walked and prayed and spoke and healed and lived and died and was resurrected, my prayer is that we return transformed by the experience. We welcome your prayers.