“To go on pilgrimage is not simply to visit a place to admire its treasures of nature, art or history. To go on pilgrimage really means to step out of ourselves in order to encounter God ... Christians go on pilgrimage to the Holy Land, to Rome, and also to Compostela… to strengthen their spirit with the witness of faith and love.”

- ​Pope Francis

Pilgrimages have been around for millenniums and are critical parts of most religious traditions. Human kind has an internal desire to find the divine in unique locations that provide meaning to our lives. Often these locations come from our heritage and the stories we hear of God becoming real and present to our ancestors. We hold a view that in these sacred places the bridge between our world and God is closer and more accessible than the settings we find ourselves in each day. 

Pilgrimages are about the search for God and/or moral significance in our life. Many times the upheld locations call us forward to meet the creator however the journey there is what shapes us and connects us with who we are and what God is calling us to be in this world. ​
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Pilgrimage is an attempt to align our lives with what is right. To find peace, make spiritual progress, and encounter the divine. It's about living simply and moving toward what is sacred in our lives. Since it is a journey of physically going to a sacred space so does our hearts and souls. It is a journey both inward and outward with respect for the past and the present. 

Community of Christ Heritage 

As part of the greater christian community, Community of Christ joins with those in journeying to find God in their life from the sacred places of the past. Here is a list of the "6 Top Christian Pilgrimages" brought to you by lightworkers. com for you to check out.


With this churches unique heritage it provides additional sacred spaces to which we travel with the hope to find the divine. Let's look closer at these places represented in this tradition. 
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1. Kirtland Temple - During the early years of the latter day saints movement the Kirtland Temple was built by a community of believers. It was a place of community life anchored by the church and its beliefs. It was at this sacred space where many people felt the presence of God moving within their hearts and souls. To learn more about the Kirtland Temple and other historic sites please go to the Historic Sites Foundation. 

4. The Plano Stone Church - ​This church in Plano, Illinois was built and served as this denominations headquarters in the mid 19th century. Joseph Smith III started his trek as President in this area causing this to be an important piece of this denominations history.  

5. Liberty Hall - Liberty Hall is located in Lamoni, IA and was the home of President Joseph Smith III. It also served as the headquarters for the RLDS now Community of Christ during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  

6. The Temple and Auditorium - Located in Independence, MO this now serves as the headquarters for Community of Christ. Across the street they stand together creating a beautiful area for people to gather. Both are open to the public and the Temple is dedicated to the pursuit of peace. Fill free to stop in and tour both facilities as you walk the worshippers path.  

Your Pilgrimage

Where are you going?  What is your destination? Where is God calling you to pilgrimage? Go, look, search, and find for your place in this world.  

I encourage all of you to journey to the places that are sacred in your life.  Reflect and ponder on what has conspired and yet what is to come. Where do you find peace and significance?  Where is the divine guiding you?  

Thank you all for those sharing the blog.  This week I challenge you to share the blog on Facebook with your friends.  

This week really think about how pilgrimage could impact your life.  

In November 2018 we had a post about gratitude titled "Spiritual Gratitude."  It focused on the science of gratitude, how it rewires our brain, and how it enhances our spiritual life.


This week we are exploring gratitude once again because it is such an important part of happiness and spirituality.  

Expressing Your Gratitude

Research has found being thankful increases our level of happiness.  They have also found that expressing that gratitude with others shows even larger increases. In the video below they did a gratitude experiment with expressing their thankfulness to another person.  Check it out and I encourage you to even give it a try.  

The Benefits of Gratitude

The blog Daily Greatness states there are both intrinsic and extrinsic benefits of gratitude. Intrinsically our perspectives can change and our senses become heightened. Extrinsically thankfulness can positively impact our social connections with others just by showing appreciation for them. It enhances our focus and allows for more openness in our communication.  ​

Amy Morin writes about the "7 scientifically Proven Benefits of Gratitude That Will Motivate You to Give Thanks Year-Round." These 7 benefits highlight how being thankful positively impacts our mind, body, and spirit. Enjoy the read! 

What Are You Thankful For?

So the question is who and what are you thankful for? Is it your best friend, the coffee you had this morning, your neighbor, the birds chirping, the song you are listening to on the radio, or maybe the comfy shoes you are wearing. Identifying the things in our life that we are grateful for changes our perception.


​I encourage you start making a list. Maybe you can quickly come up with 25 things or maybe you can start a journal and do five each day.  The key is to practice thankfulness and allow it to be a bigger and bigger part of your daily life. If you are struggling with coming up with things check out Kid President. He has a list of 25 things he is thankful for.   

Thankfulness Questions

What characteristics do I appreciate specifically about someone else?

What in my life makes my life better?

How has someone positively impacted me in the past and present?

What in my life can I not do without?

Where do I want to spend my time doing right now? 


Be thankful for whatever responses come to these questions.  

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You to all those sharing and supporting the blog.  

Answer the questions above and be thankful for those things in your life. 

Where do I even start with these questions? 


Questions About Disconnection With God

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Why do I feel so disconnected at times from God in my life? Is it me or is it God just not wanting to be with me? Did I do something that God turned away from me? How do I stay steady spiritually when I don't even know where I am most days? ​

Why do I hear all these amazing testimonies from others but I have none for myself? Couldn't God just talk into my life and make this easier? How often do most people pray?  Is it ok to fall asleep why you are praying? How do people stay focused in prayer without their minds wandering?  


Questions About Scripture

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I mean did Jonah really get eaten by a whale and survive? Or is it just a myth that provides ways for us to find faith? How long can you survive if you are eaten by something anyways?

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Did the whole city of Jericho really come crashing down because the army walked around it? Was it just poorly built or was there some weird shift in the foundation?

How does evolution work with the creation story? Was it literally 7 days or is that just a worldview that has been passed through generations? How do dinosaurs fit into the stories from scripture? 


How is it these are the only writings in time that make up the word of God? Doesn't God act throughout time making the Bible just part of it? Does God still speak today?  And if God did how would that become scripture?  ​

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Questions About Jesus


Did Jesus really walk on water as that seems impossible? And why wouldn't he do it all the time if he could? Does this mean Jesus could also fly?  Was he really born from a Virgin or did God just act within the world events that transpired?


​Was Jesus born as the Son of God or did he become someone we look to as divine because of his life and message? Was he always kind, or did he ever show other extreme emotions? How was Jesus during his teenage and young adult life? Did he ever make any bad choices? 

What would Jesus think about society today? Who would he be a champion for now? What about his message still speaks to me? What would he think about social media?  And how would he use it to carry about his works?  How would he change church today?  What would be his primary focus of ministry?  

I wonder how people will take a whole blog post of questions?  

Maybe this will cause others to question things in their faith this week?  

Our guest blogger this week is Caleb Brian! Caleb is a self-sustaining seventy in Community of Christ who lives in St. Paul, Minnesota with his wife Tiffany and dog Ramona. They attend the St. Paul Community of Christ. He works as a Product Development Specialist at 3m (think Post-It® Notes and Scotch™ Tape). He has a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin and an undergraduate degree from Graceland University. Caleb spends his free time playing summer softball and winter volleyball. He also manages a vegetable garden and goes hiking as much as he can. Again we are very thankful for Caleb bringing his thoughts with us this week.  

The beginning of time seems to always come up as a hot topic in the “war” between science and religion. A reading of Genesis 1 would posit that God spoke the universe into being, created contrasting pieces, and worked out all the small details within it. It’s a beautifully written creation story that reflected some sense of understanding of who we are in the vastness of space.  Science on the other hand would say that the beginning of the universe took place via the Big Bang and that all matter that at one moment that had been highly compressed into a single dot erupted due to some unknown event to grow and swirl and splinter into the universe we observe today. It’s a compelling theory that reflects some sense of understanding of the visible universe around us.  And why do the two have to compete? 


13.8 billion year ago (give or take a few) something happened that caused a chain of events that led to Earth that led to organisms that led to humans. I believe that God could be in that space and watching over that expansion in ways that we still do not comprehend. Intriguing enough, it was a Roman Catholic Priest, Monsignor Georges Lemaitre, who is credited with the idea of the expanding universe that came to be referred to as the Big Bang theory. ​

For example, I was sitting in a discussion about recycling today. How, in the 1950s, consumerism shifted from durable materials to disposable materials and our rate of consumption has only increased from there. I’m constantly tempted to get the newest phone, but the one I have now is working just fine for what I need it to do. I look in my closet often at the vast array of shirts I have that I can wear to work and get bored sometimes because they are the same shirts I’ve worn for a few years now.


​A stunning statistic in our discussion this morning was that in the 1930’s women would have maybe bought two pieces of clothing a year and kept it for 5 years. Today the amount of clothing items purchased has jumped to 65 a year, and they’ll only be worn on average 3 times. Now, some could argue that is the increased purchase power we’ve gained in the last 80 years, but at the same time the science of clothing has changed in such a way that these goods are no longer made to last or at least to hold interest for long periods of time.  ​

My final example for this post is this. As the future of the church continues to feel uncertain and undefined, the church has much to learn from the freedom to ask questions which is present in science. When we allow ourselves the openness to explore our faith and understand the things that we believe and why we believe them I feel that makes us stronger. If cell biology had stopped when Robert Hooke first described cork cells in the 1600s we wouldn’t have many of the medical advances that we have today.


​The same is true of our faith, of our growth as Christians, in understanding a God who deeply loves us and yearns for the wellness of creation. No longer is our faith “just because” but it begins to move and breath with a deeper sense of life about it. This deeper sense of life has the added benefit of making our faith community more relevant to our friends and neighbors who are searching for spiritual homes even if they too don’t know how to define them.  ​

A big thank you to Caleb for being our guest blogger and helping us work through this difficult subject!

This week ask yourself how science impacts your faith and vice versa.