Barbara: Hi everyone- welcome to 40 minutes of faith. My name is Barbara Cox and I host this weekly podcast to explore God's word and our relationship with God.
Today's guest is Becky Powell. She's from Richmond, Virginia, and has lived in at least 11 places, currently in the black forest region of Germany. We met while Becky and her husband of 28 years attended a military chapel in the Kaiserslautern, Germany area.
Becky was raised Baptist, ordained Presbyterian and earned a doctorate degree on the religious practice and faith development in international churches. She's been an army religious educator attending Anglican Episcopal congregations and supporting all military members and their families of all religions for the past 12 years.
After she retires, Becky would like to return her focus to third culture kids, which we will have to talk about in a future episode. Welcome, Becky.
Becky: Thanks, Barbara. This is exciting.
Barbara: I've learned more about pilgrimages in the last five years than I knew in my entire life before that.
I knew that our biblical ancestors wandered in the desert and traveled to Jerusalem for festivals. But I, for some reason, didn't associate those with pilgrimages. The NIV translation of the Bible includes the word pilgrimage twice and the message version references Pilgrim songs and Pilgrim travels 28 times, 18 of which are in the Psalms.
Let me read Psalm 84 verse five: “Blessed are those whose strength is in you, whose hearts are set on pilgrimage.” Becky, what does pilgrimage mean to you?
Becky: Well, I have to agree Barbara, that as a kid I never really heard much about pilgrimage. I remember the pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving, and I remember that they came to the new world, not to seek gold as the Virginia settlers had done, but to follow the sense of calling from God. And so those were pilgrims. And then in literature classes in high school I learned a little bit more about pilgrims because there was the book that we were forced to read snippets of, Pilgrim's progress, which I don't remember anything that literature teacher said, but then we all enjoyed reading snippets from Canterbury tales.
Barbara: I'm glad you did- I didn't. In fact, I read prodigiously a 500 page Louis L'Amour book, but I didn't like a lot of high school literature
Becky: the difference purposes of travel really sparked my interest. I'm glad you asked this question about pilgrimage, because the reason why you go determines what kind of trip you're making.
So the Israelites sought God's refuge and were led through the wilderness, but the people of Israel, as they would travel to Jerusalem to go to the temple for their annual events, they were going on a pilgrimage, a time to travel and seek God.
There were times when people have had to move and there's times people have chosen to move, and Barbara, when you and I met, we were both working with the U S military and we lived where we were not because we wanted to, not because we were on holiday, not for religious reasons, but because we were sent to do a job
Barbara: and interestingly, I wanted to go and I had a tremendous faith based experience as well, but that's not a guarantee. That's not part of the deal automatically.
Becky: when you travel, you always need to recognize why you are going. I have known people who said, Oh, I'm going to Jerusalem and going on pilgrimage. And I'll say to them, why are you going? Well, I've heard there's this great shop on…, okay.
That might not be a pilgrimage. The motivation for your going might be shopping. And there's nothing wrong with travel for shopping. Believe me. Whereas when you and I and our friends, when we went to Santiago de Compostela, we did go for the intent of pilgrimage. But we didn't get there in the traditional way.
And I've caught some flack for that, by my friends who do the annual genuine pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. But our intent was to go and grow in our faith. Therefore I say we went on pilgrimage.
Barbara: I suppose I need to confess that I bought a really cool pair of sandals at the end of the trip. So I hope that didn't cancel out the benefits of the pilgrimage.
Becky: Well we are living in Germany for work. We shopped and we had days where we enjoyed the black forest as a tourist would we had days where we develop our faith. You can have the expressed intent of a trip to be for your faith development and happen to do some lovely shopping while you're at it.
Barbara: What was your experience in the town of Santiago de Compostela as it hosted people who walked a hundred miles across Spain to get there?
Becky: the Camino begins in various places around Europe. I have known people who started in Speyer, Germany to walk it
Barbara: across France
Becky: all cross France, across Spain, all the way. If you were to drive it, it's like 24 hours of driving.
Barbara: Yeah. We really cheated by getting on an airplane.
Becky: They really did miss some of that by getting on the airplane. But our intent was to grow in our faith, and their intent when they go is to completely separate from their normal lives and to grow in their faith.
And I do think that we would get a lot out of that traditional walking pilgrimage.
Barbara: I was being a little bit sarcastic and a little bit sincere because I want to honor, most Americans have very minimal vacation time if they have full time jobs.
Even when I was working in Germany, it was for Americans. I had three weeks of vacation per year. So for me to do a long weekend in Spain, that was it. I could have used all my three weeks of vacation at once to walk across Spain, but I would rather go to several different places for shorter chunks of time.
So I didn't mean to sound snarky that you can't go on a pilgrimage unless you can do it the right way, which some people might believe that.
Becky: last Christmas, Raymond and I were in Chartres, France at the cathedral. And it was an amazing place that people would go to in France for pilgrimage during the middle ages.
People would embark from there to other places like Jerusalem or Santiago for their own pilgrimages. Hundreds of years ago, the church leaders in that place said, Hey, let's do something. And this is the mad libs version of church history of that cathedral, but they decided to have a way for people to go on a pilgrimage without having to leave their local area.
And they embedded in the stones of the sanctuary a labyrinth. A maze is a twisty path that you can get lost in. A labyrinth is a path that only has one entrance and one exit, and you're never going to get lost doing it. And it is there on the floor of the cathedral for you to walk. And it's got to be 50 meters in diameter circle, and you can take your time praying or reading a Bible verse as you take an hour and follow the path of this labyrinth. And it is an opportunity without getting on a plane or without walking two weeks to step away from your normal world and to pray.
Barbara: I really enjoyed walking labyrinths and I agree with you. For me, there's more of a feeling of safety because I'm not in a maze. I'm not going to bump into a hedge like in a Harry Potter movie and be trapped. You are invited to think quietly, to pray, to meditate, to sing, whatever you like in your labyrinth.
And there's a really cool website called www.labyrinthlocator.com, where you can find all around the world, different labyrinths that are open to the public. And if you are really creative or more talented than I, you can also find ways online, you can draw labyrinth with chalk. If you have a driveway or a parking lot, you can build one.
If you have a backyard just with some string or something like that, to have a meditative experience without going somewhere fancy.
Becky: Well, when we were there, I really wanted to walk the labyrinth. I've seen replicas, we have replicas in my office, but it was Christmas and the chairs were set up. So you couldn't walk the labyrinth.
They needed the seating for people to come for the special masses. So I was disappointed. So I ended up finding my own way of having time of meditation as I walked around that cathedral. But there's nothing magical about a pilgrimage or about a labyrinth. When we were in Chartres, there was a lady with her teenage kids and she stood at the center of the Labyrinth image.
And she said to her kids, see, can you feel the energy from this place? Well, Christian theology doesn't say there's special energy in that labyrinth. It says the experience between you and God and the Holy scriptures make the difference. And she was seeking something magical. The intent behind labyrinths is a local pilgrimage, a local growing intent with God.
Barbara: I’ve had some different experiences with that feeling. When we were in Arizona, there were places where they said, Oh, you'll kind of feel this special sense. And I didn't. But I love nature and I feel close to God in nature.
And when I was in Israel, I really felt that the place of the Western wall was a Holy place for me. Like I just started to cry even as I was approaching it. So I just want to honor that different people will have different experiences, but there's not a formula or a prescription. Like if you go walk a labyrinth, you'll have a transformative experience.
Now you may very well, but it's okay if you just have a few moments of peace.
Becky: I had even less experience with labyrinths growing up than I did with pilgrimages. I didn't have the language for it or anything. And it was about 2012 when we used a labyrinth in a youth retreat.
And there was a teenage boy and he and his friends were making professions of faith becoming confirmed in the churches. And he was expressing that intent. And he's a dear sweet friend, but he just was doing it for social reasons. He really wasn't exhibiting the fruits of the spirit. He wasn't exhibiting a heart, strangely warmed, as Wesley would have said.
And I wondered, is he really having a conversion experience or is he just curtsying to God? Well, he was on the retreat where we had a labyrinth and as he began the labyrinth. He went in, goofing around as his sweet self always does. And I watched as he prayed. We sent him in with a Bible verse on a slip of paper.
He reflected on that Bible verse. And as he prayed and the 15 minutes it took him to do that labyrinth, I did watch something mystical occur. I could see in his body language and hear in his speech and his intent in life. By the time he came out, he had gone through a conversion experience and he was changed by God.
And to this day, he's 21. Now he's a member of his local church and sings in the adult choir. So God did use that time. Not all 21 year olds are in their local adult choir or attending church with any frequency. And I think we trace it all back to the 15 minutes in the labyrinth.
Barbara: And some people already have a personal favorite Bible verses very meaningful to them and that speaks to their hearts. But I'd like to offer a few more passages during this conversation if you can walk a labyrinth or if you just want to sit on a bench somewhere and meditate or at home on your couch. Psalm 21 is called a Pilgrim song in the message. And in another translation, the NRSV, it is a song of ascent.
And what this means is that as the pilgrims climbed the Hill to Jerusalem for these festivals that we were talking about, in history, they sang the Psalm. And actually, I would be curious to know if they still sing this song as they climb up to Jerusalem. So here is Psalm 121, an excerpt:
“I look up to the mountains. Does my strength come from the mountains? No. My strength comes from God who made heaven and earth and mountains. He won't let you stumble. Your guardian God won't fall asleep. Not on your life. Israel's guardian will never doze or sleep.”
Becky, as much as I would love to urge everyone to buy plane tickets and go on pilgrimage, that might not be realistic at this time for various reasons as many people still live in places where the pandemic numbers are increasing. It isn't always possible to attend a church service in person, either. Could it be possible to create our own pilgrimage close to home in order to spend time with God?
Becky: I have watched a lot of worship services online. I attended Bible studies online with friends. I haven't done anything physically in a church, really in a genuine worship experience since the 1st of March. And for me, it's been a struggle. But I listen to the church bells here in Germany and be reminded of what time of the day it is. Cause I forget the time of day or the continent, to stop and do my time of prayer and devotion. And I have a prayer book from the Anglican tradition that has prayer Bible verses for each time of the day- morning, noon, evening and night. And that has been a pilgrimage forcing me through four times of Bible reading through the day, not just the ones that I was taught as a kid.
Oh, you must do your Bible reading once a day. Well, this is integrating it into my lunch and my dinner. Another thing we did several years ago, Is we had, chapel congregations building space for Christ is what we called them. I had a bunch of clear shoe boxes and we invited each of the families in the chapel to, use the shoe box and to put in that shoe box, different things that help them feel, see, smell, taste, experience the love of God.
And so I noticed this morning on my shelf, my family shoe box with colors of the church year with reminders of Bible verses with pictures of a cross, with a sky in the background. And this is designed to take pieces out, not as an altar, so much as a reminder to stop and spend time with God. And particularly when our daughter was little, she would take time and set up.
This and change the pictures and the things that are on a little table in the hallway to remind us all to stop and pray. And, that's been a really helpful thing for us during the years. And it was sitting forgotten on a shelf until today when I knew I would be talking
Barbara: to you. Well, this is a great example of God's mysterious ways, because I actually had that written down as a question to ask you, and I'd love to have some detailed examples, maybe for some other folks out there about worship in a box for your own home.
So here's the question I was going to ask you. Becky, I'm cautious to ask about home altars because it's important to me that I worship God, not an assortment of physical items that have meaning in my life. How can we create a space, either outside or in our homes that's special for our time with God?
Becky: So I think it's important to you that you have God's word laying there- a Bible to help you, perhaps a Christian book or prayer book to help, like having a Sunday school teacher beside you. Sometimes the Bible is hard to just open an experience, but if you have a devotional book or a book written by someone who's a Christian leader through the ages, laying there with it, then you have things to pick up the words to experience.
Some of our friends who created these spaces have an old iPod laying there with music that they would have playing periodically to fill the house and to remind them, I always feel like it's real important to have something that smells. So when I opened our box, just now it had the smell of something that we used to have in the chapel where you and I attended in Kaiserslautern, but I can't place the smell quite, but it takes me back to a time when I was in a worship service. So they're linking back to the actual experience of the body of Christ coming together.
Barbara: it could be a candle or even a piece of incense- whether you light it or not, it still has that fragrance.
I love that to engage the different senses. So there could be images. There could be a book, something you're holding in your hand. Something that you're listening to. That's really nice. I do have another Psalm to read and I also have a Bible study to recommend because we often talk about God is our strength and that we treasure God.
But I also want to honor that sometimes life can be hard, can feel stressful. Let me read Psalm 130, which is also called the Pilgrim song in the message version: “help, God! The bottom has fallen out of my life. Master, hear my cry for help. Listen hard. Open your ears, listen to my cries for mercy.”
And one of my sentiments actually came from this study that I want to recommend a Bible study, which is about the Psalms of ascent. It's written by Beth Moore. And the title of the study is stepping up and among other things, the study teaches about the pilgrimages that were made by our faith ancestors to Jerusalem.
And it's a helpful tool to learn more about the Psalms. And she writes that God wants to hear our deepest cries. Now we also do give praise and Thanksgiving for the blessings in our lives, but that we don't have to be kind of glossy with God and just pretend that everything is great. So I know that not everybody who goes on a pilgrimage or who walks the Camino, as it's called, is a Christian, or they might not even be doing the walk for spiritual reasons, but some people do pray while they're walking. And here is a modern interpretation of Psalm 119, starting at verse 33: “God, teach me lessons for living so I can stay the course, give me insights so I can do what you tell me my whole life. One long obedient response. Guide me down the road of your commandments. I love traveling this freeway. Give me a bench for your words of wisdom and not piling up loot, divert my eyes from toys and trinkets, invigorate me on the Pilgrim way.”
Becky: That's a good paraphrase.
Barbara: Anything else about pilgrimages that we could encourage listeners to do in their local environment since some people still do have travel restrictions?
Becky: One of the things I noticed when I was walking through a park, earlier in the spring when all the travel restrictions were happening, but people could go to their local park for outings, someone in that community was putting out little notes of encouragement or Christian symbols, or just cute little dolls like baby dolls, tiny ones, tucked along the trees, in the branches and along the bases of trees all along the path of this park. I don't know why they did it, but it was a sweet thing to encourage people. And as the COVID restrictions were so very tight, you can watch as people notice these happinesses all along the way and you could watch it.
By the time I spent three weeks walking this path each day, there were lots of remnants of people had left behind to encourage others. And I think if you are unable to travel, perhaps find or provide encouragements for yourself or others to see. In a physical path or a park or walkway that you go to set up a place in your home, like this space for Christ, where you see something that forces you to either intentionally turn your back on God or intentionally pause and pray.
And I think seeking to recognize that God is calling you, and you are a Pilgrim if you're seeking to follow God, even if you're not getting blisters on your feet and walking hundreds of miles across the heat of Spain. Being intentional about looking for the signs of God, no matter where you are.
I'd say that the most important thing you and I did when we were in Santiago de Compostella was that you and I didn't go to the path and walk as your husband did down into the town. As the pilgrims were walking, you and I took two children and we went to the beach. And we had allowed those children to play and to be children.
And those two kids remember that sacred day that you and I gave them with safe virtual aunts taking them at a time where they could experience God's word God's nature and the love of the body of Christ. I know
Barbara: it's been hard for a lot of families with the shelter in place policies. In this example that you're mentioning, the parents and guardians of those kids did a longer walk that would have been harder for the kids. So family together time is awesome. And then sometimes family separation time with the kids in a safe situation is also good for everyone, if that's possible. I had a great time. I would rather spend a little bit of time on a beach with some kids than walk a great long distance, but I still am grateful for the people who walk, for whom that is something really important and special.
Becky: I would love to go back and do the walk again. I have a couple of friends who that's been a part of their annual vacations, taking a few days of walking chunks of that. But having been there and having traveled to Jerusalem, and we even got to go to Damascus years ago when that was a different world, and to being in places where the people of God had done extraordinary things, it's pretty neat.
But then I think it's important to remember that every place we go, we are in places where the people of God are doing extraordinary things. The key is to look for the calling of God, just whatever we feel like we may be doing. It goes back to the definition of pilgrimage, the intent to travel with God.
Barbara: I probably should have said at the beginning too, we're not sponsoring people to go to Spain. We're not getting any cuts from travel agents. It was just something that was really memorable for us. And a lot of people really admire the cathedral there because it has something really famous inside that I didn't know about.
And I know that some people really love high church with incense and lots of candles and bells. And this particular church is famous because it has a gigantic censer, another word for that is thurible. And these words are not necessarily part of my own faith tradition, but especially for the pilgrims, 80 kilograms is how much the device weighs. And they put in 88 pounds of charcoal and incense and light that thing up. And it goes across the aisle. It takes eight people to pull the ropes. So you have this massive silver- I don't know how to describe it- it's 180 pounds over five feet tall, that's swinging up and down the aisle with incense coming out of it.
And that's a really Holy experience for a lot of people. I was impressed- I think of the Bible verse that says, may my prayers rise to you like incense, but that's not something that I would necessarily seek out, but it was pretty amazing to see.
Becky: Well that memory of you and I standing there's that giant ball with incense and silver was flying at us, thinking of that as all of humanity's prayers going up and God puts prayer out of the, “Oh, what, we'll have some sitting in a parlor” into, “Oh my, that's powerful stuff!” I love the fact that with pilgrimages and incense, we have the head, shoulders, knees and toes, all the senses of the body, engaging with God. And particularly my work with children or people that have special needs having an experience with God where you walk it, you touch it, you taste it, you smell it is significant. And that was a pretty amazing unforgettable part of the trip.
Barbara: I feel like we always have a fear of missing out. Sometimes you really do miss out and sometimes it's okay if you have to take care of things in your life, then hopefully other people are benefiting from what you're doing. If you're working or if you're taking care of family matters. So that's why we're trying to describe something you might not get to- this tiny corner of Spain that's not really near the Capitol or even Portugal.
It takes some effort to get there, but that's why we're trying to describe and encourage people to have other ways also of feeling that connection with God.
Becky: the point is not the geography or the space in the middle of the labyrinth. The point is the engagement with God.
Barbara: Now one thing that really surprised me, Becky, I don't know if you had ever heard this. I use a website called Biblegateway.com and I literally typed in the word Pilgrim or pilgrimage, I can't remember which one. And that's where I got all these answers from, but I had never heard it presented this way as it was in the message. So I'm just going to read two verses out of Matthew chapter two, verses one to two: “after Jesus was born in Bethlehem village, Judah territory, this was during Herod's kingship, a band of scholars arrived in Jerusalem from the East. They asked around, where can we find and pay homage to the newborn King of the Jews? We observed a star in the Eastern sky that signaled his birth. We're on pilgrimage to worship him.”
Becky: They were not on an international negotiation, they were not traveling for diplomacy.
And particularly as that translation goes, they were on an intentional conversation with God kind of thing. And they might not have known what the God was. They were there to worship. And I think sometimes, like this kid that I knew who was doing the labyrinth, ‘cause I told him to. And he came out having experienced God- maybe that's the same sort of pilgrimage that the three Kings went through is that they were there on some sort of God related thing, and came out having experienced the incarnate God, Jesus.
Technology is a way that people can go on a pilgrimage without going to the pilgrimage. We had people here who had intended to go to Rome. They couldn't go to Rome, but the guide that was going to walk them around Rome had set up a video media version of Rome.
So he's lifetime walking around Rome and showing them what they would have physically walked around and seen. Which is a cheaper way of doing it, that the tour guide would never have thought of otherwise.
Barbara: Thank you for your time and your insights with us, Becky. It sounds like you've been on a bunch of pilgrimages, so we might need to have another conversation about a different one.
Becky: Sounds good. I would love to. And talking about the third culture and the experience of internationality and intercultural in this with our faith, it's a big deal, something that we're living through right now ourselves.
Barbara: Yes. I have a heart for third culture kids ‘cause I am one and it's a really big deal for a lot of families. So that would be terrific.
Becky: I'd love to do it anytime.
Barbara: So we talked about actually going to a destination with the intent of spending time with God, and also ways to intentionally focus on faith at home. Walking a labyrinth can be a spiritual experience and having a box with supplies that help create a devotion time also helps. Here are some additional ideas: can listening to music, bring you on a spiritual journey?
Some people like to write their prayers and looking back on them later, can show answered prayers or those still being lifted up. I've been reading an interesting book by Barbara Bruce. The title is “7 ways of teaching the Bible to adults” and it shows how different learning styles help people make meaning of what they are being taught.
For example, some people might not be thrilled at the suggestion of writing their prayers, but they can dance to praise music. Some people might be able to pray while they run or walk while others want to research words or write an acrostic using the letters of a word. Say, for example, the word ascent, and either start a word with each of those letters or include each of the letters in the word ascent in another word.
If you'd like to draw, could you sketch what climbing somewhere to encounter God might look like? How about writing a poem about climbing to meet God? It's okay if climbing anywhere sounds stressful- our prayers don't always have to be all sunshine and roses, or our drawings or our dancing.
I recommend this book. For those of you who are musically inclined, in addition to our regular closing prayer, we have a new musical offering after the prayer. This version of the Lord's prayer was composed and is performed by Eric Haitz
Your comments and suggestions for future episodes are welcome at www.fortyminutesoffaith.com
Resources:
Psalm 84:5
Psalm 121
Psalm 130
Psalm 119, starting at verse 33
Matthew 2:1-2 (The Message)
Bible study:
Stepping Up by Beth Moore
Book:
7 Ways of Teaching the Bible to Adults by Barbara Bruce
Website:
Becky goes on pilgrimages regularly