My Fourth Camino walk centered on the theme of perseverance. Oh, don’t we all need perseverance in this seemingly never-ending season of Covid-19 and other 2020 Craziness?

Again the questions are in bold, with my answers below.

Where do you need perseverance in your life right now? Where do you dig up the perseverance necessary to push past your limitations?

In my darker moments, I think, “I don’t push through. I just give up.” But I know that in truth, Jesus, You’ve kept me on the mission field for 30+ years and in this writing business for 25+ years, and I guess you’d call that perseverance.

On my walk today, I tried to do a different loop—or same roads, but backwards. And I noticed several things: one is the road called Durance. I even took a photo of it. A wink, Lord. I’m on Durance Drive while I am listening to a podcast about Endurance. It was about at the halfway point. Endure.

Then I saw this funky wooden parrot in a front yard. I don’t think I’d ever noticed it before. It’s weather-worn, perched on a narrow pergola covered in vines. But I did a double take as I noticed it because the novel I’m reading right now has a parrot as one of the main characters. Again, it felt like You were winking at me, Lord, and saying, “I know exactly where you are in this life, this day, this walk around the block, Lizzie. I’m here with you.”

Where do I need perseverance? I want to persevere in You, Lord, and trust that my little piece of the puzzle is enough for You.

PSALM 63

1 You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water. 2 I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. 3 Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. 4 I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands. 5 I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you. 6 On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night. 7 Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings. 8 I cling to you; your right hand upholds me.

How might your experience of physical tiredness, discomfort, thirst, or hunger help you to press into your physical and emotional needs and longings for God today?

Well, of course, I felt another wink as I read Psalm 63 in the exact translation and the exact same verses (vv. 1-8) that I have memorized and meditated on for so long. For my breath prayer, I chose ‘God, my Upholder” and now I can’t remember the second part. “I trust in You?” “You provide for me?” Anyway, it was about endurance, and I have never called You my Upholder before, Lord. But that last line: Your right hand upholds me. I think of it often, and it is so true. Praise You for being my great Upholder!

When I feel overwhelmed, this calls me back to You, Lord. Yes, of course. I wish it weren’t such a battle to get my thoughts off of whatever is overwhelming me and back onto You. I long for the simplicity of trusting You in the deep fabric of my life so that all the mountains and valleys are faced with quiet confidence and joy.

MATTHEW 11:28-30

28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

As you walked, where did you sense physical weariness in your body? Consider the current circumstances: Your life. Your work. Your relationships. The events that are shaping our world right now. In what ways are you weary? What burdens are you carrying? How does Jesus want to share the burdens that you’re carrying this day?

Of course, Lord, I think back to when I did this walk in the summer and the image of taking Your yoke and learning from You. My spiritual director encouraged me to sit with these verses, and I loved the picture I received: I closed my eyes, and I was with You, Jesus, in the throne room. I had my huge backpack and was unpacking all my ‘stuff’ and laying it at Your feet.

I just kept pulling stuff out of the backpack and piling it in front of You. But it was getting so high, it was covering Your chair! Finally, my backpack was empty and I looked up at You and said, “I’m sorry, Jesus, that there’s so much stuff.” But You just scooped up all the ‘stuff’, outlined it like on Google Drive so that it meshed into one little piece that You then could drag over and dump into Your backpack. And You did! So my pack was empty, and I thought Yours would be huge and heavy, but it wasn’t. And then You invited me to stand up, and we started walking and You said that Your pack didn’t feel heavy at all! Yours is an easy burden.

So the invitation is for me to keep giving You all my stuff so it can be Your yoke, and we can carry it together. And I may have to keep asking myself throughout each day, “Am I picking up all this stuff again? Or what am I picking up now that I need to give to Jesus?” And that’s okay.

Then I thought about how You say in those verses “Take my yoke on you and learn from Me for I am gentle and humble of heart…” and I thought, “What am I to learn, Jesus?”

I am to learn how to carry Your easy yoke, always with You; how to keep emptying myself as You did, so that I too am gentle and humble of heart.

I want to let the way be made by walking. I have no idea what the next steps are, but You do, and together we can persevere. I can trust You on that.

Where do you need to persevere today, dear reader? Can you give Jesus all the ‘stuff’ in your backpack and then take His up His easy yoke?

***These photos come from my Camino walk in France in 2018. To see more photos and videos of the actual places I walked (which are also mentioned throughout The Promised Land) go to my Facebook Author Page and to Instagram.

ELIZABETH MUSSER writes ‘entertainment with a soul’ from her writing chalet—tool shed—outside Lyon, France. Find more about Elizabeth’s novels at www.elizabethmusser.com and on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and her blog.