The First Issue–Living Words
From May 20, 1985
Read Revelation 3:20-21
We cannot be ordained pilgrims. We cannot feel the urgency of becoming spiritual pilgrims unless we are drawn by God, who is Love. Someone or something less might inspire curiosity but would never plant in our hears a thirst for a goal that leaves us feeling homeless until we find it.
Fear, guilt, frustration and despair may drive us to the ends of the earth. But rather than making us pilgrims, that would make us fugitives. We would be running FROM sin and sorrow rather than running toward God.
The impulse to become a pilgrim, to want never to stop until we find our real home is religion at its purest because it springs not from ourselves, but solely from God. We become pilgrims simply because God is what God is—Love. We do not become pilgrims in obedience to any human or divine law that we perceive, but rather because we are trying to respond to God as God.
Realizing even vaguely that we are pilgrims at heart who are being mysteriously drawn to God should fill us with propound joy and gratitude. Reality has a Loving Center to which we are being enticed.
O God, I am thankful for even the feeble awareness I have the You are love, and that you love me and seek me.
James A. Adams
