This Sunday will mark the second in the season of Advent and the Faith candle will be lit. For me, the Christmas story of Mary and Joseph on their sojourn to Bethlehem, is mostly a story of faith. The practical reason for this trip was to pay taxes. But the overarching story is to fulfill a prophecy that would bring forth Jesus, the Messiah that had been promised.

While I approach the season as a Christian, I know that not all of you share these beliefs. But I believe all of us can identify with the journeys we travel throughout life that are steps of faith– walking in the dark toward a desired destination.

Yesterday, a friend tagged me on Facebook with his photos of Santiago, Spain–the end point of the Camino. Looking at those images of the scallop shell direction signs, I could feel those cobblestone streets along the Portuguese Coastal path that I took in August of 2024. Thousands of pilgrims walk that ancient trail from different starting points, but all of them have reaching the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela as their goal. You start out with faith that you will make it there. Like other pilgrims, I’d planned my route and researched aspects of the terrain and the villages and cities starting in Porto, Portugal and ending in Santiago, Spain.

But what sustained me through that fourteen-day 158 miles was my faith that I could do it. In some ways, you do walk blindly because it’s a new experience and you don’t know what you’re going to encounter or how your body will respond. There were times I was lost–not terribly, but enough to add distance and fatigue to an already challenging day. The first week, there were times I had doubt, wondering why I thought I could do it, feeling I was foolish because I had no certainty about my course. I walked the Camino by myself and didn’t have walking partners with whom to share these feelings and frustrations.

On those days, it helped to remember other difficult things that I’d accomplished in my life, even though I had doubt. A verse of scripture came to mind: “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” Hebrews 11:1; those words helped me to keep walking in the dark, putting one foot in front of the other when my feet felt wobbly, the path ahead, uncertain.

I think of the different journeys we take in our lifetime. The first one that felt most unfamiliar to me was going to college. Living away from home, meeting new people that weren’t like my family or hometown friends, learning how to pace myself with the schedule and classes that were so different from high school–altogether was a time of uncertainty. I had no doubt that I wanted to be there in order to obtain my end goal of being a nurse; but taking the steps on that path often felt like traveling in the dark. After four years of walking that road, I have my diploma to prove that I made it.

The second big journey came in becoming a parent. When I was twenty-nine and had my first child, how excited and scared I was to step into that world of being a mother. I depended on others who’d been parents and on the advice of pediatricians and parenting books to help. Regardless of those resources, there were many points along the way where I felt lost–and still do at times, as I parent my two grown sons. Looking at them, I know I got a lot of things right–but still, I struggled along the way, made mistakes and wrong turns.

The third challenging journey has been the path of separation and divorce that I’ve been trekking for the past six years. So many times I’ve felt like I was putting my next foot forward in total darkness. But with my faith in God as my guide and companion, I have arrived at a much better place–a destination that was hard to even imagine when I started the sojourn.

When I arrived in Santiago on that Friday in August, I felt huge relief and gratefulness. Faith had carried me to the celebration in that plaza in front of the towering cathedral. Tears flowed as I remembered my dream of walking the Camino had originated twelve years earlier and now was realized.

After my time of basking in that celebration, that accomplishment of my dream, I obtained my Compostela, my certificate for completing the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage. Now, it hangs above my writing desk and I remember all those days of walking by faith, not by sight.

My hope for you in the next week, is that you have what you need to sustain you as you walk in Faith the path that is yours.

Connie