Mark Whittall

The first time I walked the Camino de Santiago in northern Spain was eleven years ago. In the midst of that journey, early one day just after breakfast, I found myself walking with a woman named Lori. We were strangers, but we walked together and soon enough, I asked her the question that was asked so often on the Camino: “Why are you walking?” She hesitated for a moment. Seeing that hesitation, and knowing that the next village was some ten kilometers away, I said to her,

Have you ever been on the verge of something new? The familiar is ending. Something new is about to begin, but it hasn’t taken shape yet. That’s an exciting, scary, wonderful, nerve-wracking place to be. Can you imagine it? Have you been there? A new relationship, a job change, a move to a new city. I have a grandchild who’s about to be born. Could even be today! That’s being on the verge of something new. It’s exciting and it’s just a little scary, all at the same time. And

It is easy for our faith and our worship to remain on the surface. We sing uplifting songs, we talk about love, we pray to God when it’s convenient. Good Friday invites us to go deeper. Good Friday forces us to go deeper, to confront pain and suffering, to spend time in the darkness of our world and to consider whether our faith has the power to sustain us in the painful places of our lives. We tend to live much of our lives on the surface. “Hi, how are you? Fine thanks. Ni