Are we there yet?!?

Well, we finally left...on Sunday night, as I was laying in bed, trying to fall asleep, I remember saying to myself: "Self, you're going to the Holy Land tomorrow.  Do you realize that?"  I guess I hadn't really.  We flew from Reno to Vegas to Salt Lake, where we joined the rest of the pilgrims.  From Salt Lake we flew to Detroit, and now we are in Paris.  It was a very long flight, made doubly long because of the lady in front of me who insisted on fully reclining her chair so that she was practically laying on top of me.  Oh well...it gave my sister and me a few chuckles...at first anyway.

Thinking about how long our trip has been, and how much more we have to go, I was starting to ask myself "Are we there yet??" but then I realized, isn't that the point of a pilgrimage?  To remind us of the journey of life?  So many people today are impatient; they want success now, they want happiness now, they want everything now.  If something takes time, if it takes determination, if it demands something of us, then we move on and find something a bit more instant.  But pilgrimages remind us that we are always on a journey; we are always moving toward somewhere (or our theology would say toward Someone).  In essence, our whole life is a pilgrimage, a journey of discovery and growth and movement toward the Living God.  Even now, sitting here at the airport, I am on pilgrimage.  Every layover, every take-off and landing, is part of this journey.  Every encounter on the plane and in the airport an encounter with the hidden Christ among us.  Even the woman who sat in front of me on the plane.  And I can either let the annoying people get under my skin and stew about how long the trip is taking...or I can roll with it and find every opportunity to laugh and enjoy the people around me.

Next stop...Amman.

Peace!