Embodying Attentiveness: Lessons from the Trail

The Way is Made by Walking: A Pilgrimage Along the Camino de Santiago, by Arthur Paul Boers
progress: 111/178

This book is a collection of Mennonite pastor and professor Arthur Paul Boers' reflections on his 500-mile pilgrimage along the Camino de Santiago trail in Spain. Being that I have been on my own pilgrimage of sorts, it caught my eye in the bookstore. In the foreward, Eugene Peterson defines pilgrimage as

The ancient practice of walking, usually with others, to a holy site while paying prayerful attention to everything that takes place within and without, soul and body, all the ways that are inherent along the Way, along with the companions who are also on the Way. (9)

Boers goes on to explain that his pilgrimage differed from other experiences of challenge and hardship in his life because this journey and all of its difficulties was one of his choosing. Although he defines pilgrimage in its truest sense as a physical journey with the goal of spiritual transformation, he explains that pilgrimage has a metaphorical application as well: as an interior journey of spiritual transformation. The latter has been my experience, and indeed, many of his lessons on the Camino de Santiago have resonated with the lessons I've been learning in the wilds of rural Alberta. He writes

We live at a time when our walk with God is seen as more fluid, including steps forward and backward, perhaps even sideways at times, and we are not always sure which is which. (24)

A major theme of pilgrimage is the idea of movement - that God is the God of movement, and that we best keep company with Him by walking, or journeying, with Him. In the Old Testament, he dwelt in a tent and travelled as a pillar of fire or cloud, and Jesus himself was called The Way. Boers writes

Human nature means that we are always yearning wanderers. We are all homeless, ever since our eviction from Eden. And pilgrimage is an inevitable consequence. We need constantly to look for - and stay on the move for - God. This search keeps us unsettled. Deity is not easily tied down. Biblical faith is wary of confining divine presence too closely to one place or building, land or sanctuary, race or nation. Faithful people are repeatedly and providentially called to go elsewhere, be displaced and meet - even be - strangers, all in order to encounter our Creator more fully. (39)

God is always calling his people to movement, as "aliens and strangers" in search of a "country of their own." (Hebrews 11:13-16). The Christian life is one of journeying and the transformation it brings. Throughout the Psalms and Proverbs, we are called to "walk" in His ways (c.f. Proverbs 2:20), which means we are to walk with Jesus. And it is this walking that changes everything. It is about seeking and finding the path, and then traveling upon it. As Peterson points out, it is about paying attention: to God, to where He is leading you, to what He is doing in and through you, and in and through others on the journey with you.

This is where the literal and metaphorical understandings of pilgrimage intersect, for the physical journey is a one-time experience which trains us how to live the rest of our lives more attentively. Following the pilgrim path requires alertness as we watch for signposts, and discernment as we weigh carefully whose directions to follow. The walking itself slows us down for thoughtfulness, reflection, and prayer. We begin to see with clearer vision how God is "at work in all things" - a lesson Boers learned from a fellow traveller.

A particular challenge Boers faced on his journey was to lighten his load. He was constantly being challenged to simplify, if not by other more experienced pilgrims, then by his sore muscles and the blisters on his feet. What could he do without? How were the possessions in his pack weighing him down unnecessarily? Again, the literal weight of his pack challenged him to consider the metaphorical burden of his possessions. He reflected on the toll that his own accumulation of possessions has taken on him, as well as the toll his own consumerism takes on the world at large. His bold statement, "Every time I use a car, I make a theological decision" has returned to my thoughts to challenge me about my own flippancy with regard to the world's resources.

I was also intrigued by Boers' link between simplicity and hospitality. By lightening his backpack, he was forced to rely on the hospitality of others when he was in need. I wonder how much our possession of Every Useful Thing prevents us from experiencing the grace of hospitality from those around us? I am generally quite willing to loan out my Useful Things, but it is harder to receive from others when I am in need, yet that interplay of giving and receiving is so essential to our humanity. To be only a Giver or a Receiver is to be broken, severed from the shalom that true community embodies.

I am over half-way through this book, and the reading of it has been a journey in its own right. My life does not match up to the ideals of pilgrimage. It is rushed, and wasteful, and preoccupied. I'm like a stick figure wandering through the beauty of the three(+)-dimensional world unawares. How do I flesh out that anaemic little stick person and embody the attentiveness of pilgrimage in the busyness and distraction of my day-to-day life?