Dave Dishman

This week my wife and I will lead a group on the Camino de Santiago in Northern Spain. This is our ninth time to take part in the ancient pilgrimage to the resting place of Saint James. We don’t walk alone. Thousands of pilgrims travel this path every year. Some for the adventure, some to honor a loved one, and many to connect with the Lord.

The Camino forms a mysterious, thin place in our world, where the Spirit hovers due to the fact that seekers hiked this trail for over a thousand years in a quest to find God. Some leave fulfilled, others frustrated, but all leave an impression with their prayers and yearnings. People from all over the world make their way here. I’m reminded of this line from the prophet Habakkuk:

For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

I’ve met Europeans, Africans, Asians, Australians, North and South Americans on the trail, truly a global consortium. The earth fills with those who believe that God exists, others who pray that God exists, and still more skeptical that God exists at all. Amazingly, you meet all three types on the Camino. Pray for pilgrims here in Spain, and for those next door. Join me in praying that all of us may personally experience more and more of the knowledge of the glory of the Lord.

Habakkuk 2:14

Photo: La Fuente del Peregrino, a hostel dedicated to helping pilgrims find God.

But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.

A person who trembles at God’s word takes the Scriptures seriously. Isaiah wrote to a nation ignoring the ways of the Lord, cavorting with demonic entities and offering their children alive to the fires of wicked gods. Yet some in the midst of this falling away listened. Bowels loosened and knees weakened at words of impending disaster. While most saw only a crazed prophet blathering in the street, others heard the voice of God.

Many today view the Holy Scriptures as a book of myths, or a set of writings that squelch freedoms, or simply the blathering of long dead prophets. But others see them for what they are—words from God. A deferential approach allows the Holy Spirit to illuminate these texts. The more one respectively opens the Bible, the more a person learns about our magnificent God and his love for us.

God looks with favor on the man or woman who approaches his word with a humble heart. Taking a clear-eyed view of the stories and teachings of Scripture leaves you weak at the knees. The Bible is a serious book for challenging times—just like those we live in today.

Isaiah 66:2

Photo by Aaron Burden

When my sons and daughter graduated from college I honored them with a gift—a sword from Toledo, Spain. For hundreds of years Spanish steel was considered the best in the world for weaponry. On each sword I had a verse engraved that I felt was appropriate for the receiver. On my son’s swords I used the same lines from 1 Corinthians:

Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.

Paul’s words to a struggling church create a seal of approval to pray over young followers of Jesus, especially young men. Our society encourages men to make some money, play video games, bet on sports, and party on the weekend. Yet men are created for so much more. We’re to stay attentive and alert to the world around us, remain solid in the faith, and take care of others. It’s good to be strong, just do so with love.

Here’s powerful blessing for those younger in the faith. Engrave it on steel, carve it in wood, or tattoo it across your chest. No matter what it takes, fix it in the hearts of our sons and daughters.

I Corinthians 16:13-14

Photo by Chris Linnett

Ancient philosophers depicted the gods living on Mount Olympus, gloriously unconcerned with everyday people. But where does the God of the Bible live?

For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.“

God dwells in a magnificent, sacred place with the saints and angels, far above my imagining. At least this is my visualization of his home. But notice where else he spends his time. God resides with the contrite—those who are remorseful and repentant. He settles in with the humble, the broken, the average, the modest of heart. He makes it a practice to sit with the lowly.

The triune Creator of the universe doesn’t lounge around Mount Olympus cracking nuts and playing croquet. He ain’t spending a lot of time with proud and arrogant people either. Rather, God comes to you and me when we humble ourselves, confess our sins, and ask for the peace of his company.

Where does God live? With all of us who need his presence and aren’t afraid to admit it.

Isaiah 57:15

Photo by Louis Galvez