Walking to Emmaus

How do you describe an awakening? Do your eyes pop open and the world is abruptly revealed in all its glory? Or is it a slow process by which we discover those small and beautiful pieces which go together to make up our world? My recent Walk to Emmaus was closer to the latter.
I won’t try to give all the details of an Emmaus Walk. A Walk is something which needs to be experienced, not described. Rather, I will make an effort to express some of my responses. Briefly, a Walk is a very organized and focused activity which gives participants the opportunity and structure to evaluate their relationship with God, to interact with others doing the same, and to explore ways of being a better disciple.
Distractions are minimized, with watches and cell phones disappearing on arrival. Walks are segregated by gender. The needs of participants are met by a massive outside support team which takes care of meals, housekeeping, and even cheerleading when necessary. One of many surprises of the weekend was how many people turned out for different functions, even though they didn’t know any of the participants personally.
The variety of participants was something of a surprise to me. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but there was a tremendous variety of people there. Retirees, businessmen, ranchers, police officers, teachers, medical types, construction workers, and a few unemployed were just a sampling. Baptists, Methodists, Catholics, and some that defied easy categorization. Ages ranged from early twenties to the eighties. Blue collar, white collar, no collar. It was really not a homogeneous group…the only things we had in common being our beliefs and a desire to explore them.
How do you get a group of grown men who don’t know each other to open up about their thoughts and beliefs and values? Talks, study, group discussions, and doing everything together quickly broke down some barriers. We worshipped together, lived together, meditated together, and broke bread together literally and figuratively. One of the greatest sources of joy to me during this time, was getting to sing together. If you don’t get goose bumps when you are with fifty men singing Blessed Assurance or How Great Thou Art at the top of their lungs and you know they mean every word, you never will. Over and over, I would get choked up as we sang old hymns I knew by heart, and new praise hymns I had never heard before. It has been a long time since I have heard such joy expressed in song.
I’ve been home for almost a week now, and I am still trying to sort out the personal effects of my Walk. Some things are clearer now, and some priorities have been rearranged. One thing I am certain of, if you are offered the opportunity to go on a Walk to Emmaus, cinch up those sandals and go!