From the time that we were told that we would be keeping silent from that point until the next morning I knew that something different was taking place.
Here I was in a small wooden chapel (reminiscent of the school house on “Little House on the Prairie”…except red) with some 50 other men, most of us experiencing this for the first time and praying (literally) for a life changing experience. After a few hours of getting instructions and being led to the chapel here we now were, being asked to keep silent for the next 8 – 10 hours. And so began my first “Walk to Emmaus”
I could try and explain to you in detail what happened on the walk, but other than the fact that this is impossible (I cannot convey to you the feelings involved in the experience and without that part I would be doing the event a serious disservice), I want everyone that can and will to experience this walk on their own terms with fresh eyes…that was the first gift my sponsors (Pastor Dusty and His wife Audrey Reynolds of the AMAZING Sycamore Church) gave me.
What I will give you is a little bit of what I am left with after those 72 hours in the woods.
Some quick back story first…I have spent the last decade or so reevaluating many things when it comes to my Christian life…my relationship with Christ. I have been apostate and have turned my back on Him like a petulant child; hands over my ears, eyes squeezed closed trying to kick away the Hands that were trying to hold me.
Today, though, I am overwhelmed looking back on God’s prevenient grace, grace that held me in His love as my orbit spun out of control…waiting like the Father, hungry to embrace His prodigal son when he returns Home.
This weekend those Arms held me closer than ever before. I am overwhelmed by the outpouring of love that came to me from people who have never met me…people locally and from around the nation and around the globe…including brothers in prison…who were praying for me BY NAME. People who were praying each hour of my 72, praying in shifts of an hour each, just to see me move forward with Christ! Grace extended to me by brothers and sisters who came out to serve me…not just volunteering there time and resources, but they PAID MONEY to be there to serve me. Did you get that? People ministered to my pain, my short comings, my lack and left me with the abundance of His love by being “Jesus with skin on” to me. Such self sacrifice was so absolutely overwhelming to me.
Which here in my “Fourth Day” (what everyday after the 3 day walk is called), I look back on and recognize that it is just like what Christ was illustrating to the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4:3-42) “-but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life." They did what all Christians are supposed to do, Love me with the love that He has poured into them…love that is so abundant that it overflows out of us so that those around us can get a drink. Like those champagne glass towers you see at weddings, filling us up to overflowing (Malachi 3:10, Luke 6:38) and filling up those that we give His love to and so on and so on...
This has been one of the most pivotal 3 days of my life and I am champing at the bit to see what God does from this point on in my life. My burn to help those in need was not only confirmed, but the flames were liberally fanned. I pray that God will let me not only pay back all of you wonderful people involved in my Emmaus experience, but that I can pay it forward sponsoring others and seeing His work in the fields accomplished with my own hands for His glory!
Thank you all, May God bless you 100 fold for what you have done for me!
In the matchless name of Jesus Christ,
Amen.
De Colores!
If you would like to find out more about the Walk to Emmaus you can here;
http://upperroom.org/emmaus/whatis/
