With Other Pilgrims

I've been meeting with a couple of others once or twice a month for a couple
of years, now, in a cell group. We've meet for about 1 1/2 - 2 hrs, sharing
what our lives have been like, how we see (or want to see or can't seem to
see) what God is doing in, through and around us, reading and discussing
some aspects of the Rule for the Brothers and Sisters of Charity, reading
and discussing (most recently) "The Fire of God" by John Michael Talbot
(founder and spiritual director of Little Portion Hermitage and the Brothers
and Sisters of Charity), and praying together.

We met again this evening and had another one of what I call our "Pilgrimage
Discussions." There's only three of us meeting regularly together, but I
find these discussions so helpful for me. It's not just a matter of, "Oh,
yeah, that's what I've felt/thought/experienced, too." Part of what goes on
for me during these times is a kind of refining of the understanding of my
own experience.

I've long been convinced that it's dangerous for us to try to live out our
Christian lives in a kind of isolated state even though we may be engaged
with a gathering of Christian believers in worship each week. We (and I'm
not sure how to define that "we" other than "people") tend to head towards
extremes that are unbalanced. It's not that we don't want to be balanced,
generally. But the only experience of which we are aware is our own
experience unless we deliberately engage in discussion with others and
listen to them talk about their experiences. I include in that "experience"
both the daily, practical, "life experience" but also our experience with
the Word of God as the written word and the Living Word - Jesus Christ.

It also seems to me that we Americans are particularly prone to strive for
isolation (that we can make it through life - or even just through a day -
without the aid of anybody else). But if, as Christians, we take seriously
that we have been made to reflect that character and nature of God himself,
we sin if we live by this "rugged individualism" concept. While God
certainly does not need us to accomplish anything he desires, God is, within
himself, a community... a tri-unity. If human beings have been made in the
image and likeness of God, despite what Sin has done to us, it has not
altered the fact that part of our "fulfillment" is to somehow live and
journey together with other Pilgrims.

While I am not a terribly social person (I'd much rather spend a full month
of evenings at home with my wife than spend even two nights of that month
with any sizeable group of people), the reality is that I need others in my
life. I am grateful to God that, in his sovereign grace, he has provided me
with, not only my wife, but a few others who are willing to journey with me
on this pilgrimage toward Home. It's not necessarily all, "What a wonderful
fellow you are to be with, Jim." But it is, "I see you struggling to
persevere on this journey as am I. May I come along with you so that I may
both be encouraged and, perhaps, encourage you, too, as we travel."

There are many times when I think John Bunyan was writing about me when he
wrote about Pilgrim and his progress towards the Celestial City, and the
people that journeyed with him.

Perhaps you, too, are on this pilgrimage towards Home. I would welcome the
opportunity to, if you desire, to chat with you "along the way." Perhaps we
can encourage each other to persevere when we get discouraged or tempted to
get (or maybe even tricked into becoming) sidetracked. The journey is every
bit as important as the destination... And it's important to travel with
other Pilgrims.

How wonderful, how beautiful, when brothers and sisters get along!
It's like costly anointing oil flowing down head and beard,
Flowing down Aaron's beard, flowing down the collar of his priestly robes.
It's like the dew on Mount Hermon flowing down the slopes of Zion.
Yes, that's where GOD commands the blessing, ordains eternal life.
(Psalm 133)