This day proved to be one of the most fluid of the entire pilgrimage, with me smoothly zooming down the side of the roadway; easily as well as even my very best walking days in Spain, and I made it in seeming no-time to the initial outskirts of the tiny hamlet of Rural Retreat. And it was here that I noticed Mr. Miller in his roadside driveway, and I stopped awhile to ask him for some water and engage him in a little “Gospel tennis” to boot* … After amicably parting ways, I proceeded onward – both for and along The Way – and yet didn’t get very far when Mr. Miller pulled up alongside me in his car and graciously offered me two bananas and some ice-cold water for The Road …

*“Gospel tennis” is a game which I gently-yet-devoutly engaged whenever any even-partially open-minded (and sometimes even only open-mouthed) Christians were well-met along the Way. After mentioning my Mission to quite literally spread The Word of Christ, more than a few Christians would hint their disapproval of the same. And this made perfect sense, seeing as how the Christian church actually has almost nothing to do with either the teachings or the values or the Commandments espoused by Jesus himself (but instead is soaked to the point of drowning in the ego-laced ramblings of the oft-aggressive and highly judgmental “apostle” Paul**). And so it was on this day as well, with Mr. Miller asking me if I was “spreading the good news about Jesus” on my Walk, and me calmly noting that Jesus himself wanted us all to do no such thing – that he wanted us not to worship him but to follow him (i.e. to radically emulate his way of unconditional, limitless, courageously caring & joyfully self-sacrificial Love for all others). Mr. Miller, being the proper Paulinist that he was, openly rebuked this comeback, and ran inside to give me a copy of the Baptist daily devotional – that I might mend my errant ways and get back to the much less loving path of standard Christian dogma. I thanked him sincerely and smiled at him lovingly, and then made sure that he knew that I would never ever ever in any way abandon the cause of championing Jesus’ far more perfect Love – even if that meant me going to Hell after I died. To his credit, he didn’t take my gentle rebuff at all personally, and we once more parted ways quite amicably thereafter. Interestingly enough, the devotional’s scripture residing for that day came from Matthew 13:15-16; a passage which fittingly – and in his case quite ironically – reads: “For this people’s hearts have waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have been fully closed … And yet truly blessed are [the eyes of those who follow my Way], for they are the ones who truly See the Truth, and their ears are blessed as well, for they clearly Hear the same.”

** Whereas Paul and his church would have you cling to John 3:16, Jesus and his Way would have you focus on John 3:17. Whereas Paul and his church would have you focus on Romans 3:23, Jesus and his Way would have you embody 1 John 4:18. Whereas Paul and his church would have you believe in Romans 6:23, Jesus and his Way would have you honor Mark 10:18. Whereas Paul and his church would have you worship Romans 5:8, Jesus and his Way would have you enliven Matthew 5:48. And whereas Paul and his church would have you spread the “Good News” of Romans 10:9, Jesus and his Way would have you in-courage the far better Gospel of Matthew 10:7 + Matthew 24:12-14 … Amen – Let the latter in-deed be so!

“If your ears are the only thing that’s listening, you aren’t Hearing anything … In truth, life cannot be experienced deeply without an accompanying glow of courageous kindness, just as love cannot be known deeply without a surrounding aura of reckless generosity.” ~ inspired by Craig Lounsbrough & Glenn Haybittle

Filed under: Peace Pilgrimage #02: Walking HOME (2019) by Scaughdt