I’ve been thinking a lot about what a spiritual pilgrimage is and what is the purpose of my spiritual pilgrimage. Historically, the Camino de Santiago was a spiritual pilgrimage of repentance and contrition. Men and women would walk the trails leading to Santiago de Compestello as a means of showing God their humble desire to be forgiven for their own brokenness and to seek an assurance that they were forgiven by God and by the Roman Catholic Church. Presently, people still make this walk in repentenance but I believe the spiritual motive for most people on the Camino is to seek some spiritual insight, healing or direction for their life.

Well, I’m definitely walking the Camino in repentance…but to be honest, almost every step I take (whether in Target, around my home or at church, and especially the first steps I take anytime I exit my car) is in repentance. I know I have lots and lots of layers of brokenness, and I try to deal with them in the moment when I recognize it. So for now, this Camino isn’t a special trip to make a confession.

Certainly, I will be seeking insight, healing and direction from God during this journey. I feel I am eternally fueled by an insatiable hunger for God, divine wisdom and guidance. So I am preparing for this walk with an open heart and mind to encounter God and receive healing, insight and guidance however it is offered to me.

Yet, it feels like there is something more to my spiritual pilgrimage.

I have experienced a lot of loss these past 5 years. I won’t bore you with the inventory of heartbreak I have endured. But in this past year, I have begun to experience something beautiful and new growing within me. I am not sure what exactly it is and what it will be, but it feels lovely. It feels like a new place where I abide within Christ. It is out of this lovlieness I feel invited by God to join Him on this walk.

There was a woman who found a pearl of great value. She sold what she had so she could obtain that pearl (Matthew 13:45-46). I believe that is the story of my pilgrimage. While I haven’t sold all of my worldly goods, I am parting with quite a few things. Because I have experienced something of God that is new to me. A richness of love, beauty, wisdom and power that is more valuable than anything I have known or own in this world. That is the pearl of great value.