The Pilgrim's Way

Carl and I are still reading the Psalms; some nights, I think, how can we still be slogging through this book? We read 15 minutes a day--shouldn't we be done by now?

Last night, we got to some of my favorite lines from the Psalms: "Happy are the people whose strength is in you, whose hearts are set on the pilgrims' way" (Psalm 84, verse 4) and "Steadfast love and faithfulness have met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other" (Psalm 85, verse 10). I love the personification in that last verse, the idea that righteousness and peace can do something so fundamentally human as kiss.

I also love the idea of our lives as a pilgrims' path. I sometimes feel like I should have made more progress in my faith journey, and I sometimes feel despair that I'm still wrestling with aspects that I should have mastered long ago. Sometimes I feel despair because I thought I had mastered those aspects, and then my mastery unravels. I like the idea that God seems to expect this cycle, but as long as we turn to God for strength and keep on the pilgrims' way, we're living up to our full potential.