3 Ways I Experienced God

 3 Ways I Experienced God

When I talk to people about walking the Camino and mention that it’s a pilgrimage, they usually want to know about the spiritual aspects of my trip. I feel like people expect big neon signs and lightning bolt experiences with God during my walk. It didn’t really happen that way. In fact, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about exactly what impact this had on my spiritual journey. Today, I went hiking with a friend who walked the Camino with me and we talked about this. I think she helped me realize what I’ve been trying to capture in my mind. But first, I’ll tell you the first two.

1) Finding the one random person I knew was walking sometime in September or October, who I had never met before so didn’t really know what he looked like, and then walking for miles talking and realizing how much we had to talk about. When you think about the fact that over 2000 people were walking that part on that day, it’s pretty amazing!

2) The connections I made, the conversations I had, and the ways we shared within our group were amazing! I truly felt that God had put together the 21 people and I am forever grateful and blessed by this.

3) The other day, I saw a post on a Camino group. Someone found an expensive sports watch and posted it. Shortly, they connected with a friend of the owner and plans were in the works to get the watch to the owner. Would this happen in my town? I’m highly doubtful. But that’s the norm on the Camino. I never felt unsafe, never felt someone would take something from me or take advantage of me. In that time, I only witnessed a harsh word once, and later found out that person was really struggling. I realized today when talking to my friend that my time on the Camino was the closest thing to experiencing what it would be like if people were trying- really trying- to live like Jesus! We put other’s feelings ahead of ourselves while still striving to live our best lives. We helped each other, and felt the love of others supporting us. Loving one another was just a part of life, not something we had to work hard on. We weren’t dealing with the world where hate, intolerance, and greed have taken over. So, while there was no amazing aha moment, I’m realizing that what I’m missing here is experiencing a world where people are living like Jesus showed us, where people naturally followed His greatest commandment, to love one another. So, I need to do what I can to be able to love and show others by example. 

Blessings,

Jennifer