Pilgrim Journeys - Chapter 1: Traveling for a Purpose

Senior year at the University of Montana, I needed to find a way to fill some credit hours. I landed on a Parks and Tourism course that discussed modern forms of nature-based tourism. We delved into discussing traditional forms of mass tourism to begin with. This would be a cruise ship stopping at all your island sweet spots as it sails through the Caribbean or an endless line of beach resorts on a man-made Florida beach. As the class went on however, ideas like Ecotourism and Voluntourism began being brought into the discussion. Both ideas have to do with not just going on vacation for the sake of vacation, but going to a place with hopes of leaving a positive impact on the place visited and/or leaving changed yourself. Modern tourists are not only hoping to leave positive physical impacts, but leave with spiritual ones as well. Writer, Arthur Paul Beors told us in his book The Way is Made by Walking that some of his fellow pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago (a traditional Christian pilgrimage) weren't affiliated with any religion, but in the end hoping for a spiritual experience on the trail. You can watch one or two documentaries of folks walking any classic American thru-hikes, and you find this same longing lurking in the hearts of the trail's travelers. People are traveling with the hopes of their experience creating a lasting impact on their lives. I believe that this hope is getting at a deeper truth in the world, that to change sometimes we need to encounter something outside ourselves.

Christians have traditionally called this form of travel pilgrimage. Author and Priest, Ian Cron, said "A pilgrimage is a way of praying with your feet. You go on a pilgrimage because you know there's something missing inside your soul, and the only way you can find it is to go to sacred places, places where God made himself known to others. In sacred places, something gets done to you that you've been unable to do for yourself." The Camino de Santiago as mentioned above is a well-known example of a Christian pilgrimage. The route begins wherever you decide to start walking from in Europe and ends in the city of Santiago de Compostela, Spain on the front steps of the city's Cathedral. Most pilgrims arrive in Santiago de Compostela with the intention of attending the local mass service given inside the Cathedral and in this way leaving differently than how they started their journey.

While I was being raised in the church, the idea of pilgrimage in my mind sounded like an outdated way of encountering God. I wondered, "Don't people know that you can find God anywhere?" While that is true, I think there is something also to be said about going to places of historical and/or personal significance to encounter God. I found during my college years that going to a place with the intention of being with God created for me a set-aside time where I was inviting God to work on my heart that couldn't just happen in everyday life with all it's distractions.

This place for me was a little section of Rattlesnake Creek in Missoula, Montana. A short 5-minute walk from my house, it became my intentional meeting place for spending time with God. I wouldn't have called it this at the time, but about every weekend (especially in the summer) I made a pilgrimage to Rattlesnake Creek. How did these "pilgrimages" play out in reality? Sometimes at the creek, I would be surprised by visits from the local wildlife residents that made me ponder the creativity of the Creator. Other times I just listened to the creek rush letting it calm my soul. After special moments, I left with a newfound sense of peace and joy. Most of the time I left feeling almost the same as before I went. Either way, I had spent time with God, and I knew it.

Now I live in Germany, surrounded by endless historical sites and buildings outside my apartment older than the United States. There is a real pressure to travel here, to make most of the time I have in Europe. However, I don't want to spend my time going to places just to be able to say I have been there and done that. I could walk the streets of Berlin or go see all Rome has to offer, but if I don't leave changed for the better, was it really a good use of my time? If I'm not somehow more patient, loving, gentle, caring, or Christlike by the end of the experience, to me I might have as well stayed home and saved my money. That said, I do like to have fun. I'll plan a trip just because I think it will be fun, but not for the sake of checking off a block.

Last year, once I found out that I was going to be stationed in Germany, I told God I wanted my time here to be a dedication to Him. A pilgrimage of sorts you could say. I kind of forgot about that commitment just about as soon as I arrived. With more opportunities to travel approaching, it has me thinking again about how I can use my short time here to intentionally encounter the living God. I want to explore the ways Saints have walked before me. Where can I go, where other Christians have had real encounters with Jesus? Why was that place significant for them, and how can their experience shape my own walk with Christ today?

The Christian is a pilgrim on this earth. A pilgrim is willing to go where God calls, and willing to stay where God says to be patient. A traveler searching for something outside himself. It's all in the effort to be made more like Christ, trusting that by the Holy Spirit, we are slowly being formed into His image, and to anyone still reading this that has a similar longing, I would encourage you to start by asking God, "Where are you leading me?" Once He tells you, then ask for the courage to go.