This feels very odd….

Well I’m off. We watched “The Way” last night as a sort of rite of passing. At the end of last week we watched Brian Sewell’s rather good “The Naked Pilgrim” about the Camino. It was interesting to see Brian Sewell, a lapsed Catholic – indeed a lapsed Christian – struggling to understand why the things he saw and the people he met were having such an emotional pull on him. He kept protesting that he didn’t want to regain his faith but it was pretty obvious that he had a big God-shaped hole in his life.

Watching these two programmes has made me think quite a bit as to why I’m doing this. It”s a very big time commitment and as Dara drove me to the bus-stop this evening we discussed how I had never voluntarily left her side for anything like this period of time. I think the longest break we’ve had when it wasn’t down to the requirements of a job was a couple of days on a trip to the battlefields of Flanders. So why do this?

I think I know. It’s Easter of course in a few days time and this Easter, like so many before, has rushed towards me. Every year I contemplate taking the build-up to Easter seriously and spending quality time on my knees or reading the Bible. And every year stuff gets in the way. All very important stuff of course but nonetheless I don’t get to spend time trying to get closer to Jesus. So that’s why I’m doing this. If I am to be more like the man God wants me to be then I need to make an investment and I am hoping – praying – that the Camino will help me achieve that. I read a biography of Bonhoeffer recently and he preached about “cheap grace”. One of the dangers of being a Protestant is that it can be so easy just to relax, safe in the knowledge that one is saved, and not really live as God wants one to. And that’s a rather rubbish response to God.

So, I’m on the bus and tomorrow I’ll fly to France, Barring disasters I should arrive in Santiago in the middle of May. Rucksack weighed in at about 26-27 lbs which didn’t feel too bad on my back. I”ll be better to assess whether it is too much after Wednesday’s ascent into the Pyrenees.

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