Colossians 3:2-3: “Set your mind on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.”

There are times we Christians forget this, both in our pilgrimage life and in our other life.

On pilgrimages we can too easily get caught up in a spirit of earthly competition: How many miles did you do yesterday? How quickly did you get here today? Did you see these great walking shoes I have? Hey, you should get a rain jacket like mine! Take a selfie. Take a selfie. Take another selfie.

If the pilgrimage is all about you, you’re not doing it right. If life is all about you, you’re not living it right. If your walk of faith is all about you, you’ve got a false idea about what a walk of faith is.

The truth is that a pilgrimage is all about the triune God; and life is all about the triune God; and a walk of faith is absolutely all about the triune God. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are the center of these things, the center of everything.

Now, when we’re out walking all day in order to get our bodies to the next church or shrine or whatever, we can easily set our minds on our achievement of that goal. That earthly goal may be a holy one, but it’s still an earthly one. What we want to do is to seek the hidden Christ in those places, the Christ who makes them holy. In sort of the same way that Jesus’s divinity was hidden in his humanity as he slept in the manger in the hours after his birth, the things that make pilgrimage goals worthy are hidden from our physical eyes.

A particular French cathedral or Irish well or American shrine or Holy Land cave might attract non-Christians because of the architecture or natural beauty or history attached to the place. But the Christian pilgrim sees Christ there. We look at what is hidden and rejoice in that (as well as in the
beauty and history).

Our own lives are lived on these two planes: the outward and the inward. What we often focus on –and what we too often want others to see — is a false self. It might be built on our achievements at school or work; on outward beauty; on where we’ve been and what we’ve done. Or it might be built on the things we avoid doing because we’ll feel foolish trying them out; on callings we don’t take up because we’re afraid we’ll be criticized; on anything that controls and protects and hides … rather than frees and enriches and enlivens.

We needn’t be so self-protective. Paul teaches us here that we’ve already died and that we’re completely wrapped up (hidden) in Christ. He is our protective blanket. He is our beauty. He is our achievement, our competence, our means, our end.

Perhaps you can set your mind on that today; perhaps you can meditate on that today. Ask yourself how you’re still pushing a false self to the surface. Ask yourself how you can let Christ take his rightful place in your life. It’s much richer food for thought than how many miles you walked or what brand your rain jacket is.