Faltering Steps

by jphiker

Terri and I have a great little daily devotional with a short prayer and reflection we have used over the years. It had a wonderful one for us the other day that was just especially appropriate for us on our Camino journey.

“You enlarged the path under me, so my feet didn’t slip. Show us Thy way, O Lord, and let us walk in Thy paths.” (Psalm 18:36).

“You are doing so. This is the way. The way of uncertain future and faltering steps. It is My Way… Put all fear of the future aside. Know that you will be led. Know that you will be shown. I have promised.” (Sept 17th reading of God Calling)

Terri and I realized how this very long pilgrim walk is all about “uncertain future and faltering steps”. Just as it is true in our lives. We can not tell the future or even really secure it to what we would like. There are just too many unknowns. We go through our lives and we will have “faltering steps” that try as we may we can not seem to avoid. The Camino is a small microcosm of life in this way.

We can not know whether when we begin the walk if we will finish it at Santiago de Compostela. There are too many factors that we may not be able to overcome. We often are not sure where we will be staying at the end of the day. We have to develop trust it will be provided. We are also very susceptible on this long walk to the “faltering step” as our legs get so weary and there is the danger we have of stumbling at the wrong point. We just need to listen to our bodies and watch out for each other in these times. We do know we are being led and we know we are protected as we make our long journey. One step at a time.

We are presently listening to our bodies and taking a short day of rest today in a wonderful city, Logronos. They are famous for the Rioja wines and there is a huge week long harvest festival about to begin tomorrow as we make our way out of town. We have now finished about 1/5th of our Camino (over 100 miles). We just finished shipping out about 6 lbs of stuff that was in our packs to Santiago today and feel good about it. Less to weigh us down now and help us to avoid the “faltering steps”.

We are also looking forward to maybe some cooler walking temperatures as well as we go further West. It is hard to walk in the afternoons in 85 degree weather. We both have enjoyed walking early in the morning before sunrise each day and John has had the opportunity to get some wonderful early morning sunrise panoramas.

Buen Camino!

John and Terri