I recently received an ad for a magazine that quoted a Graham Nash song: Make sure that the things you do keep us alive." In ad went on to say, The next day I walked to work, quit my job, and kept walking. Better to be a pilgrim without a destination, I figured, than to cross the wrong threshold every day."
A pilgrim. It isn't an easy life. In fact, if given a choice, most of us would probably prefer a more settled life, one where we are close to family and friends, places we know, roads that are familiar. But being a pilgrim doesn't mean restlessness. A real pilgrim is one who is searching, and willing to do whatever it takes to find.
Perhaps that is the lesson of the story behind Moses and his people wandering thirty years in the desert, or Jesus telling us he had no place to lay down his head. And perhaps the wandering should be seen not as a life style but more of a period in life when we realize we are not where we should be. It is an invitation, a beckoning to a deeper life, a chance to change. Perhaps the pilgrim is best described as the person willing to make the move when it becomes clear what she has is not working, is not life-giving, is not for her.
Being a pilgrim in our day and age requires courage, faith and trust. To let go of what you have for something you are not sure of, but believe must be out there somewhere is awfully close to recklessness. When one departs on such a journey, there are many questions, many doubts, many insecurities. What keeps the pilgrim on the path? The belief that the journey is taking her some place, a place she ultimately belongs. And for that hope, she is willing to risk everything.
Great things are borne of hope. What are you willing to risk for your dream?
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