I dreaded today! As I researched the route yesterday, depending on the book or app you looked at, the minimum was a 17.8 mile walk. And then factor in that my lodging was in Logroño, a city roughly the size of Springfield, MO. I had stayed on the east side, which meant I had the majority of the city to walk through as I headed west. Imagine walking through the majority of Springfield.
I knew my day was going to involve walking 18-19 miles. That thought was heavy on me during the night as I tried to sleep. I decided to leave a bit earlier than normal. I lathered down my feet with anti-blister cream. I put on my backpack and grabbed my trekking poles. I headed out into the streets. I’ll admit that I was taken aback a little bit. The streets were littered with all shapes and sizes of alcohol containers. The streets were totally clean the evening before. I hadn’t gone very far and I came across some people who obviously were very intoxicated. I walked by them; but not sure Jesus would have. I just didn’t know how to engage intoxicated people in conversation at 6:00 in the morning, so I kept on walking.
It was a long walk out of town. It took close to an hour of navigating streets and sidewalks and trash trucks before the lights of the city were behind me. Now I could turn on praise music and actually hear it. It was still dark, but in the distance I could tell that it was overcast - no sunrise pictures today (some of you say yay!). There were a few pilgrims on the trail - I passed some and some passed me.
After another hour of walking, I came up beside a chain link fence. It was about 6-7 feet tall. It separated the Camino from a road below. I immediately remembered reading about it, even though I didn’t realize it was on the trail today. This fence spans close to a mile. On the fence, people had attached crosses, most of them made from branches but I saw others made of other material, one even of plastic spoons.
I thought, “This is cool,” and snapped some pictures, but kept on walking. But then, as I talked about yesterday, I had one of those “hmmm” moments. I decided to stop and try to make a cross to put on the fence. We protestants aren’t into symbols that much. And that’s probably mostly good, because sometimes symbols can become a replacement for the real thing. But I think our Catholic friends better understand some kinds of symbols, and they realize they are reminders.
Throughout the Bible, God has given us reminders. He gave us the rainbow as a reminder that He would never send a flood to the entire earth again. He also told His people at different times to raise a pile of rocks as a reminder of the victory He had given His people in battle. Reminders like that certainly have their place.
I decided to make a cross as a reminder. Those of you who know me well know that I am a zero when it comes to a craft project. When my girls were growing up and had a craft project for school, they never came to dad and said, “Dad, would you help us?” They knew I just didn’t have it! Thankfully, their mom excelled in that area.
I went to a vine that was dead. I found a couple of branches and broke them off. I tried to trim them to the dimensions that might be good. I began trying to put them on that chain-link fence. I backed off and didn’t like it so I adjusted it a little bit. I still didn’t like it, and thought I need to make something prettier. I had done basically what everybody else had done.
But about that time, it occurred to me that the cross that Jesus was nailed to was probably not pretty. It was probably just branches from an old tree. Today we have made the cross into something beautiful. We have sanded it, we have stained it, we have painted it, we have even shined it. I don’t think the real cross of Jesus was that way. I think it was two rough pieces of wood, probably tied together at the main beam.
I decided to leave the cross as it was. I took a couple of pictures. But before I left that spot, I decided to pray, just as I had done many years ago in 1966 as a first grader, at a Christian school in Fort Scott, Kansas, during a chapel service, where I gave my heart to Jesus for the very first time. Here, many years later, at the age of nearly 64, I re-consecrated and re-surrendered my heart to Jesus Christ. We talk loosely about having a God moment. I’ve had a few God moments in my life - not nearly enough, but a few. This was one of those true God moments.
As I began to pray, the tears started to flow. I just told God I wanted Him to have everything that was me. I didn’t want less of me and more of Him, I wanted none of me and all of Him! I told Him I once was young, but now I’m old, but still love what I’m doing! I love pastoring a church, I love being part of our World Missions Department. l even love the responsibilities God has given me in our community. I told Him if He could still use me in those areas, I was all in! But I also told him that if more could be accomplished by having someone else in there, then I would be glad to move over to the sidelines, become a cheerleader, and cheer them on to higher heights and greater victories. That God moment lasted for the next few hours as God came down and walked with me!
I thought I would never get to a coffee shop - the first one I came to was about 8 miles into the walk. I ordered my cafe con leche and and then another. I even splurged with a pastry. Then I was off on the trail again, as the rain started to fall. Now for those of you who follow this blog for the adventure aspect, sorry, but there wasn’t much adventure today. The only adventure was to keep putting one foot in front of the other, mile after mile after mile.
I say this cautiously - I don’t want to speak too early - but just as sailors talk about getting their “sea legs” under them, I think I may be starting to get my “Camino legs” under me. My pace was faster today, not on purpose, but it just seemed I had more energy and my legs hurt less. So, adventure junkies, that’s all I have for you today.
Oh by the way, I did make it to my hostel. I’ll admit I was so glad to get off my feet. But if you were to ask me, “Joe, how was your 18 mile day?“ My answer would be - it was awesome! In fact, it was my best day on the Camino so far! I mean, getting to walk 18 miles with Jesus: it doesn’t get better than that!
Thanks for joining me on this journey. I love your company!
Approximate total miles - 560 miles
Approximate miles walked today - 18
Approximate miles remaining - 438