John 9:1-17: And they were divided. So they said again to the blind man, "What do you say about him? It was your eyes he opened." He said, "He is a prophet."
I read the story of a woman who healed from a traumatic divorce by taking on “walking adventures” with friends. One of those walks was the Camino de Santiago, a trail in Europe walked by persons on sacred pilgrimage.
We can heal from crisis and wounds by intentionally going somewhere ‘holy,’ away from the pain of human trouble. The good news is that we need not travel to distant sites recognized as holy. We can choose to see any moment, any place, as a place to seek God on pilgrimage.
A man healed of his blindness by Jesus was repeatedly questioned by religious people who did not like his answers. The story doesn’t say he gets angry, but he persists in telling the others that it was Jesus who healed him. When pressed further about Jesus’ identity, he goes to the holy place, saying, “He is a prophet.”
Human life—with the frustration and arrogance of other humans—can push us to places of anger, anxiety, and even fear. But we have free will, amid the pressure, to go to holy places. We have the power in ourselves to seek God’s will instead of human will. We are imperfect human beings in an imperfect human world. It is a given that trouble will come.
But instead of walking with the crowd in pettiness, we have the choice to take the holy pilgrimage, the walk with God.
Psalm 31; Jeremiah 24:1-10; Romans 9:19-33
Copyright 2023 by Carol Mead. For noncommercial use and sharing only. For more information on this ministry, and on a free subscription to these meditations, please contact the author by email (thenewmead@yahoo.com).
