From the Camino: When you travel to another country, and you don’t know the customs or the crime statistics, you can carry a lot of fear and distrust with you. I found, on both pilgrimages through Portugal and the northern length of Spain, that my fears were groundless. I know it makes a difference that I am a man, and a big one at that, but I met single women walking the northern Camino who were doing beautifully, and whom I met again in Santiago at the end of the journey, all safe and sound.
Fear is normal enough. I found, though, that it wasn’t necessary.
Each morning I said my traditional Camino prayer and set off, hoping that God would, in fact, be my shade in the heat and my guide at the crossroads, and God was. In fact, the only danger I experienced, if you can even call it that, was the slippery mud after the rains, where I occasionally was in danger of a fall in the manure laden trail. I never fell…but I nearly did, in fact, several times.
Psalm 121 — I raise my eyes toward the mountains. From whence shall come my help? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to slip; or your guardian to sleep. Behold, the guardian of Israel never slumbers nor sleeps. The Lord is your guardian; the Lord is your shade at your right hand. By day the sun will not strike you, nor the moon by night. The Lord will guard you from all evil; he will guard your soul. The Lord will guard your coming and going both now and forever.
For reflection: The world offers us few promises, and sometimes is very threatening. Only a fool could look at human history, or read the daily news and deny that. Yet, the statistics would suggest that an American is safer on the Camino than they are in their own neighborhoods. My own suspicion is that I was safer on the Camino than I was on any freeway in California.
And then there is the entire arena of surrendering one’s fear to God. The psalmist, with confidence proclaims that the Lord will not allow our feet to stumble, that the Lord will be our shade in the sun and our guard from evil. If ever there was a place to allow the Lord to keep watch over our coming and going, it would be on the Camino. If ever there was a suitable psalm to serve as a prayer for the start or end of the day, Psalm 121 might just be it.
You can’t necessarily choose how you feel. We don’t have any emotional electrical switches to turn on and off. I would invite you, though, to observe today, and make an evaluation of it at the end, so that you can make an informed judgment. I bet you’ll eventually conclude, as I did, that there is little reason for worry. If you find yourself weighed down with fear, either in the preparing for your pilgrimage, or at the beginning of the Camino, or in the day-to-day walking, consider making Psalm 121 your own special prayer of commitment to learning trust in the Lord’s presence, guidance and protection of your Camino.
