Summer Series 2024: Day 1, Pilgrimage Takes Patience!"

(Read or Click Here to listen to the Podcast)

Hello friends,
 
Welcome to our 2024 Summer Series!
 
Hearing from many of you, there’s been a broad interest in the topic of pilgrimage, and my recent trip to Italy on The Saint Francis Way. I hope you enjoy this series of short vignettes about pilgrimage and monthly soaking in Jesus’ prayer practices by First Love Founder Linda Andersen. May these stirring topics be little bite-size morsels to strengthen our lives with God as we travel through the summer. 

As we get started in the series, if you've been following my posts on social media, you may have heard as little of this before. I encourage you to chew on these topics and get excited as the series builds to hear how the Lord might be speaking to you!
 
Day 1 … Pilgrimage Takes Patience!
 
After thrashing through the night, trying unsuccessfully to get some sleep on my flight to Florence, I couldn’t wait to get to my hotel and lay down. My luggage came through (hallelujah, not something to take lightly). I made my way out of the airport and found a taxi (another small victory in a foreign country).
 
The driver wove in and out of traffic on the narrow streets (if you’ve never traveled in Europe, it’s quite an experience) and delivered me safely to 49 Valenzia Avenue. Giddy to get to the front desk and check-in, they gave me the bad news. My room wouldn’t be ready for two more hours! Handing me a map and kindly explaining an easy walking route to enjoy the town, I struggled to pull on my big girl pants and headed out the door. 
 
Glued to the map, as I navigated the narrow sidewalks, it was a glorious, 75-degree day. I enjoyed what I could, barely able to even take pictures I was so tired and snoozing upright on a park bench. I returned to the hotel two hours and fifteen minutes later (didn’t want to seem too anxious). My room was ready!
 
My perfect plan for Day 1 of my pilgrimage was to go directly from the airport to the hotel and spend the day resting and having a quiet, retreat day hidden away with the Lord in my room. But, after getting a couple of hours of sleep, I knew I needed to get up. It was getting late in the afternoon, and as much as my body moaned to stay right there and my eyes wanted to shut again, I needed to peel myself out of bed.
 
“That’s okay,” I thought. I’ll get dressed, read, and write.” No. As tired as I was, my brain wasn’t clear enough to open my Bible and journal sitting on my bed. The only thing that was going to happen if I stayed in my room was wasting the day in a sleepy state of stupor or giving in to the sleep bug and laying down again way too early.
 
After taking a shower, I pulled out the European power adaptor that I thoughtfully purchased before. my trip to plug in my electronics and hair products without a problem. No sooner had I turned the hair dryer on than I heard a sizzling sound and loud pop, and shards of the broken ceramic heating coils fell out onto the floor. The hair dryer was no more.
 
I didn’t dare plug in my curling iron and wondered if it would be safe to charge my phone and computer. Yikes!
 
Even though I had dreamt about a slow day in the room, I needed to embrace not what I wanted the day to be but what it was. Realistically, with the fatigue of travel, this shouldn’t have been a surprise.
 
Isn’t that exactly like life?
 
How many of our days, years, or lives turn out like we dream? The greatest act of faith is the daily embrace of the less-than-perfect and sometimes completely opposite life circumstances that come our way. The greatest saints (the lowercase “s” kind, like you and me) walk out their days holding to the belief that God has not forgotten them. He is working all things together for their good. When things turn upside down, the true treasure they long for will be found down a different road than they had in mind. Otherwise, the day wouldn’t be unfolding the way it is.
 
So, instead of a slow day in the room. I grabbed my purse, sunglasses, and Airpods to walk into town and do the only thing I could. Maybe I’d listen to the pilgrimage podcast my kids sent me looping the city blocks. Maybe saunter down to the river running through the city, buy a gelato, and find a café table or city bench, and watch the people walking by.
 
I would have to just wait and see what this day of pilgrimage would bring, thank the Lord for what was, and celebrate the work God was doing in me.
 

—- 

Quote Worth Remembering:

"Be a bright flame before me, O God. a guiding star above me.
Be a smooth path below me, a kindly shepherd behind me. today, tonight, and forever." 

Saint Columba, Pilgrimage Prayer, Lectio 365

~ Lori