Remember the journey undertook by Pilgrims from England to New England (USA) - they faced a harsh and long journey as during those days, the ships were mainly wind-power sails. There were a lot of uncertainties in their lives, a lot of questions that could not be answered right before they embark, and more importantly, they were leaving home - a place of familiarity - to a unknown place.

It takes faith to make a pilgrimage of such magnitude. And faith comes from hearing. The people in England could not see, smell or touch New England, they could only hear of the stories told by those who brought it back. And I believe that for many of those folks, hearing beyond the excitement and ruckus, they actually did hear the still small voice of God that whispered, "Go".

And in many ways, we all make "pilgrimages" throughout our lives - whether one choose to call it a pilgrimage or not is another matter - the magnitude may not be similar to those made in the olden days, but it is nevertheless, a journey of faith to a place God has called us.

While many of us like to hear advises from people on where to go, where to build our homes, where to work, whom to marry, which church to attend, which ministry to serve in, etc, we tend to make decisions without consulting with the Counselor.

And we bring God no glory when we claim faith when things go right and flesh when things go the other way. I wonder if every God-fearing family that went to New England ended up better. Who are we to judge the acts of obedience which resulted unfavorably?

The definition of pilgrimage is nicely defined in Wikipedia as:

"In religion and spirituality, a pilgrimage is a long journey or search of great moral significance. Sometimes, it is a journey to a sacred place or shrine of importance to a person's beliefs and faith. Members of many major religions participate in pilgrimages. A person who makes such a journey is called a pilgrim."

I believe every born-again Christian is a pilgrim in the making whether he or she subscribes to the idea. We may not have another New England or New Earth to go to but rest assured that we will make pilgrimages in our lives.

When most of us change our resident or change our career/employment or even invest in a new business, we tend to think that it is a worldly thing or some would call it, "secular". Well, in no way was a career or an employment something to be taken lightly. In the Bible, careers and jobs are not lightly passed by (and so are spouses). Jesus never said that we should separate our place of resident or our career from our faith. In fact, His word said that anything done without faith is a sin.

I believe that each time we make a decision that we know will impact our lives or those around us, we are actually taking a walk of faith with God. In essence, we are either allowing God to shape our lives or rejecting God's will for us - so we either move closer or farther away from the pilgrimage God has planned for us.

At present, I believe I am on a pilgrimage with some brothers and sisters in Christ - we are on a journey to a place (not necessarily just a physical place) that God has called us. It took us a long time to get onto the ship, but we are on it, and we are looking forward to this new place with faith as our shield. The storms will come, and we will know if we have our foundation in Him.