17. Pilgrimage to Paradise: Trusting in the Promises

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"How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord Almighty! My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God." So writes the psalmist in Psalm 84. 

Being a pilgrim, a stranger in a land growing more foreign to the follower of Jesus every day, is not easy. The desire to reach the end of the journey, to be at last in the court of the Lord and in His presence, is acute.

But the journey isn't over. The pilgrimage has not reached its end and strength must be found to endure the strangeness, the darkness, the evil of the valley that must be passed through on the way to Paradise.

We understand the darkness of the death valley to which we hope to bring just a little bit of life as we pass by. But it is hard to live in that darkness. Those who read Peter's letter also understood the challenges. He writes to encourage them to resist the pull from the dead, even though it might have been difficult.

"Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because whoever suffers in the body is finished with sin. As a result, they do not live the rest of their earthly lives for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God. For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do—living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry. They are surprised that you do not join them in their reckless, wild living, and they heap abuse on you. But they will have to give account to him who is ready to judge and living and the dead. For this reason the gospel is preached even to those who are now dead…"  

It seems that evil is never satiated, never satisfied, always gaining territory and deepening the darkness in which our society lives. And we despair as did the psalmist. That despair feeds the urge to hurry the journey toward home.

But the journey can't be hurried. It's length and the experiences it involves are pre-planned according to the Divine will. Our journey is necessary so that the Gospel that we bring as image-bearers of Jesus, the good news, will penetrate that darkness and bring light and life in its wake.

So what do Peter's pilgrims do? What do we do?

The psalmist tells us.

"Blessed are those whose strength is in you, whose hearts are set on pilgrimage. As they pass through the Valley of Baka, they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools. They go from strength to strength till each appears before God in Zion." 

Though it would be much better to be in His courts and to be a doorkeeper there and away from the "tents of the wicked" the pilgrim knows that his strength to endure the difficulties of the journey, and to make a little difference along the way, comes from God: "For the Lord God is a sun [in the darkness] and shield [against the evil of the day and its perpetrators]; the Lord bestows favour and honour; no good thing does he withhold from those whose way of life is blameless. Lord Almighty, blessed is the one who trusts in you." (Psalm 84:5-7, 10-12)

The pilgrim can take heart and know joy in the journey because of those promises.