A Note from Pastor Bruce November 13, 2026
Dear Church Family:
An article on my desk is entitled, “The Possibility of Spiritual Pilgrimage.” Though I have not yet read the article, the title intrigues me. The notion of pilgrimage implies a journey, a journey with a purpose, to a sacred place. The idea of spiritual pilgrimage implies a different kind of journey; one whose purpose is personal and whose journey is inward, the journey of the human spirit. Sometimes the two journeys go hand in hand.
Last week, my wife Nancy, my daughter Anna, and I made a kind of pilgrimage to Chicago Il to consult with a surgeon whom we hope will bring relief to Anna’s pain from rheumatoid arthritis. Our intention was to make a medical journey in hope of physical healing, but it felt also like a spiritual journey in search of God’s grace for our child who has spent much of her life living with physical suffering and wrestling with spiritual doubts. For me, this medical pilgrimage found me striving to be fully present with love and support for Anna and Nancy. But unexpectedly, our journey together became also a personal spiritual pilgrimage as I found myself yearning inwardly for deeper communion with the God of saving and healing power. While on our trip, I was powerfully reminded that, if this dad and husband is to be not only a provider and caregiver for his family, but also a witness to the saving and healing love of Jesus, I must be ever intentional about the journey of the heart to deeper communion with God.
When a follower of Jesus recognizes a need for deeper fellowship with our Creator and Savior, the Lord provides for our need, and more, and sometimes in unexpected ways. On this medical and spiritual pilgrimage, God’s grace came to me in a book of sacred poetry, “Sounding the Seasons: One Hundred and Ten Sonnets for the Christian Year.” Author Malcolm Guite is a British Anglican priest, poet, essayist, and singer-songwriter. One of his sonnets for Epiphany is named simply, “The Call of the Disciples.” It is based on the familiar story of Jesus waking to calm a storm while traveling with his terrified disciples (Matthew 8:23-27, Mark4:35-41, Luke 8:22-25).
He calls us all to step aboard his ship.
Take the adventure on this morning’s wing,
Raise the sail with him, launch out into the deep,
Whatever storms or floods are threatening.
If faith gives way to doubt, or love to fear,
Then, as on Galilee, we’ll rouse the Lord,
For he is always with us and will hear,
And make our peace with his creative Word,
Who made us, loved us, formed us and has set
All his beloved lovers in an ark;
Borne upwards by his Spirit, we will float
Above the rising waves, the falling dark,
As fellow pilgrims, driven towards that haven,
Where all will be redeemed, fulfilled, forgiven.
As I read the poet’s words for the first time on the plane, I felt my eyes well up with tears, for this familiar story spoke to me as never before. As if for the first time, I heard myself echoing the disciples’ astonishment before the mercies and power of our Lord, “Who is this, that he commands even the wind and the water, and they obey him?” Amid my mortal fears, I heard the Lord’s voice speak gently to me, “Why are you afraid, you of little faith?” Not as a rebuke, but as a word of assurance for my present darkness and doubts, and as a call to cast aside my fears and step aboard this ship of pilgrimage with Christ to discover a greater love for my family and greater communion with my God.
For me, what began as a family journey in hope of healing became a reminder and invitation to a deeper and more trusting pilgrimage with the One who leads the redeemed safely through every storm, who rises to cast out our every fear by his enveloping love, and who dispels our every doubt by the grace of faith. Yes, our family healing journey is far from over, but I now have a keener sense that what matters most is that I make every step with my family also an inward journey of trusting faith and joyful obedience to the triune God. Maybe that is the best gift of love that I can give to my needy child and my busy wife and colleague.
It is my prayer that you too hear the call to spiritual pilgrimage, in whatever circumstance you find yourself, and that you embrace the mysterious Lord who comes to us in ways predictable and unimagined for our needs, and who is always seeking greater communion with all those he calls friends and whom he leads into the eternal fellowship of his redeeming love. I believe that, as you do, you will find that your every earthly journey is transformed to become part of an eternal spiritual pilgrimage.
Pastor Bruce