Tag: Saunter

On Pilgrimage

December 20th, 2025

I am not exactly sure how or when I decided that I was a pilgrim, but the moment I realized that I was became one of the most freeing truths I have known. It allowed me to recognize my place in the faith as one marked by perpetual discomfort. I learned to feel at home in not feeling at home. It made sense, then, why I never felt fully at ease in either a charismatic evangelical context or a mainline Protestant one. Sitting in silence in a Greek Orthodox church is, for me, the closest experience of heaven on earth, and even there it does not fully settle. That same sense can be found on a quiet walk in nature, listening to the songs of birds, the wind moving through the trees, and the Jesus Prayer carried softly on my breath. In truth, I am often more captivated by God’s creation than by what we build ourselves.

So what is a pilgrim?

Wikipedia defines a pilgrim as a traveler on a journey to a holy place. I believe this journey is both physical and spiritual. Our entire lives are pilgrimages. We spend our time seeking to discover who we truly are and what our place is in the world. There is a constant sense of never fully arriving. The pilgrim always has further to go, both in self discovery and in the search for God.

Much of my understanding of the pilgrim has been shaped by The Way of the Pilgrim. In this story, a hermit sets out on a journey that is both physical and spiritual in order to discover the depths of God through the Jesus Prayer. This work of fiction opened for me an entirely new way of being spiritual. Spiritual ascent cannot be measured by how much one does for God, but by how deeply one is willing to journey into God. The irony of the story is that the further inward the hermit travels, the simpler the prayer becomes.

When Jesus says that unless we become like little children we will not inherit the kingdom of God, I believe he is inviting us to grow into the simplicity of his message. Perhaps our pilgrimages are less about accomplishment and more about humility.

Recently, I took a walk in a place called the Ingram Dunes. It was cold and wet after several days of rain, and yet the dunes were alive. This area is an ancient maritime forest filled with sand dunes and old live oaks. As I walked, I came upon a tree that had fallen across part of the trail. The fallen trunk formed a perfectly level surface where I rested my water bottle. In that moment, I realized that God had set a table for me and for all who would pass by. I imagined what it might be like to bring the Eucharist to this place. How fitting it would be to use God’s table as the place for God’s Body. Just as Christ once hung from a tree, he now offers us a place to partake in him. The dreary weather has kept me from returning on pilgrimage to this spot, but when the skies clear, I will be there to offer my thanksgiving.

A Rustic Sign found near an ancient sand dune in The Ingram Dunes

I have come to see that my place in this world is that of a pilgrim. I am not meant to hold things too closely, but to receive God’s gifts as they are and to share them with those who have eyes to see and ears to hear. These writings are the overflow of that experience. My journey as a pilgrim is one of continually falling deeper into the mystery of Christ, and I invite you to walk that path with me, into the holy mystery where God is always waiting.
A Re-Enchantment of Every Day Life

June 25th, 2025

There was a time when I was absolutely captivated by nature. The way the wind blows, the smell of the mountain air, the feeling of coarse sand underneath my feet. I remember enjoying long hikes in the mountains or taking my son on early morning walks on a misty beach. Over time, something shifted, perhaps due to age or the busyness of life. I found myself less grounded in place and more grounded in things and ideas.

Prickly Pear Cacti found all around the beach

Re-Enchantment

As my age begins to show, and my beard starts to form more and more white hairs, a captivation with nature has slowly begun to return. I long to be out there, in the sand or in the woods. I long to hear the song of a Jay, watch the waves break, or spectate the flight of a swallowed tail kite. Somehow, though, this return has taken a new shape; it has become more than sensual captivation — it has become spiritual. It’s a re-enchantment.

As I spend time out there, I feel more connected to the God who has called me by name. “I’d rather be in the mountains thinking of God, than in church thinking about the mountains,” these words of John Muir have never rung more true. Hence, the purpose of this Blog. What spiritual good will come from my sauntering? Only time will tell.

John Wesley famously said, “I look upon all the world as my parish; thus far I mean, that, in whatever part of it I am, I judge it meet, right, and my bounden duty to declare unto all that are willing to hear, the glad tidings of salvation.” My hope is to share what I find in my natural parish with you. In my life, I have worn many hats, but for now, I’m a simple Pilgrim by the Sea.

God’s Grandeur By Gerard Manley Hopkins

The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs —
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

Tag: Saunter

On Pilgrimage

A Re-Enchantment of Every Day Life