Santiago and .......Snot!

This is my closing blog of what has been a life-enhancing journey. So much said and so much not. I have struggled with knowing what to include and what is too personal, not just for myself but for others as well. Wisdom indeed has been needed and finding that line between being real and honest about difficulties and not being too 'in the face'.
I laughed at myself yesterday as I was walking behind 2 young men, one of whom had his trousers half way down his legs so I stared at his underpants the whole time I walked behind him. All very fashionable in the city but a little inappropriate for The Camino perhaps. Anyway I hate this fashion- always have done. I DON'T WANT TO SEE YOUR PANTS (or skid marks!!) Is this my last test of 'go with the flow'? Anyway I eventually pass him and say a cheery ' Lovely red underpants you have on today'. He smiles sheepishly. Then today walking into Santiago I see him again. Amazingly he has learnt how to do his belt up.
I actually arrived yeaterday as I wanted to finish my own Camino before I meet Steve to walk to Finisterre tomorrow. We shall attend the Pilgrim Mass together in the Cathedral which I have not yet been in. Most Pilgrims go straight there but for me God is not primarily in that building but in the cafes and bars and streets outside it. I mostly feel a certain amount of discomfort in churches and if I was the Archbishop of Canterbury I would sell off the buildings to the Conservationists- they can have them and spend all their resources maintaining bricks and mortar, instead of hearts.Just as well there is not much chance of that happening then!
A film crew were filming outside the mighty Seminario Menor when I arrived. This is described in my book as a soul- less Alburgue. It is a magnificent building and I enjoyed the anonymity it afforded me.The Seminario was shut when I arrived so I spent 1/2 hr watching the film crew do their stuff. How utterly BANAL it all seemed in comparison to the journey that these pilgrims were finishing. Take after take after take of the same scene with the make up and hair artists dashing in between shots to adjust a hair or apply a little powder to the actors. It was utterly DULL. So much attention to so little.
I feel so strengthened by my journey- at least inwardly. Outwardly I have a streaming cold and as I crossed the motorway into Santigo my nose was streaming, my eyes were streaming, my throat feels like a rasp has been taken down it and my chest hurts. An onlooker would have thought it was a highly emotional moment for me and in some ways it was. The roar of the traffic I found frightening but inwardly I thought 'YES I have walked 800km across Spain on my own' and with that came a feeling of elation.
Eugene Peterson writes, in The Message, at the introduction to Job
'Real faith cannot be reduced to spiritual bromides and merchandised in success stories. It is refined in the fires and the storms of pain'. This is so true. I have dwelt in Romans 8:18-28 and for me these passages are not about ecology at all but about growing in grace ourselves- being pregnant and enlarging so our capacity to recieve from God is increased and our capacity to enter into a suffering world and bring the light of Christ is also increased. How many people I have met who are so lost and deeply hurting and do not know the deep love of God and HOPE that He brings. Their stories are not over and can indeed be transformed. I finish with some scripture that is so dear to me because I have found it to be true at every level of my life. I have lived this not just on a spiritual plane but a very concrete one too:
The Spirit of God, the Master is on me, because God anointed me. He sent me to preach good news to the poor, heal the broken hearted, Announce freedom to all captives, pardon all prisoners. .....and to comfort all who mourn, To care for the needs of all who mourn in Zion, give them boquets of roses instead of ashes, Messages of joy instead of news of doom, a praising heart instead of a languid spirit. Rename them 'Oaks of Righteousness' planted by God to display his glory.
God has bound up my broken heart not as some meta physical concept but as a living reality. I love Him so much.
Katex