I finished my pilgrimage as scheduled, on the morning on Saturday 12 July, when I hiked the last 7 miles from my campsite in the corner of a large windy field shared with a few sheep. Got to John O’Groats up there in the northeast corner of Scotland before the businesses that sell trinkets and refreshments to the tourists opened. But not before the tourists had arrived. I asked a woman who was part of a bus tour group to take my photo standing next to the iconic sign that I’d walked 75 days reach.
Read moreMy Sheep Hear My Voice
Sheep have been one of the constants of this long walk. I have no clue how many I’ve seen, but it must be thousands or even tens of thousands by this point.
Which, of course, has me thinking about the Good Shepherd and the sheep of his flock.
Read moreUpdate on this Pilgrim’s Progress
As of today, Monday 9th June, I am in the city of Carlisle, Cumbria, in way northwest England. About 10 miles of walking from here is where I cross the border into Scotland.
Thomas à Kempis on Midges
“There is no creature so little and so vile as not to manifest the goodness of God.” (Thomas à Kempis, Imitation of Christ, Book 2, ch. 4)
Really, Thomas?
When I was young, I questioned whether the goodness of God was manifest in gnats flying around me on a summer afternoon. (I was also not a big fan of worms, but they could usually be avoided.) Lots of other insects were not on my ‘good list’ even if they might be on God’s. Yellow jackets in the rotting apples on the ground under the tree or sipping from our soda cans at a picnic. Crickets in our cellar. Mosquitoes.
Read moreSeldom Grow in Sanctity
Thomas à Kempis, in his classic “The Imitation of Christ,” has this interesting line: “Few are improved by sickness; so also they that go much on pilgrimage seldom grow in sanctity.” (Book 1, ch. 23)
Read moreSpiritual Ages and Stages
“Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God”
Hebrews 6:1 (NIV)
The central idea here seems to be that there are, if you will, “ages and stages” in the Christian life. There are elementary teachings, and then there is maturity. There’s a foundation, and there is what is built on the foundation.
Read moreToo Rich and Not Enough Time
I’m sitting in the border village of Hay-on-Wye, Powys, Wales. It has over twenty bookshops, and is often described as a “town of books.” It is both the National Book Town of Wales and the site of the annual Hay Festival. The population is fewer than 2,000.
Read moreIt had to be yew
The village of K– was my immediate goal. To see an 800 year old yew tree in their churchyard. They’d mentioned it on their web page. That seemed important enough to go a ways off route.
Meditation
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.
Read moreLEJOG Pilgrimage Church Visits on Wednesday 23 April
There’s a saying, isn’t there, that timing is everything. And God’s timing is the sweetest.
Pathology: the Study of a Path 