TODAY Lisa Deam is launching 3000 Miles to Jesus. Soli Deo gloria. This book starts where it should by giving glory to God. I read this book in little chunks at a time. Sort of like reading about Ignatian Spiritual Exercises, I needed time to absorb what I was reading to get its quality. Lisa Deam unpacks for us the pilgrimages of a handful of medieval travelers on their way to the Holy Land, to the very places where Jesus walked, ministered, and was crucified. Like with any real life adventure, I learned how rigorous, risky, lonely, and costly it was for these pilgrims intent on seeing it through to the end. “Our medieval travelers were slow-movement philosophers way before the modern era. For pilgrimage, true pilgrimage, is always slow. It takes the time it needs,” writes Deam. Pilgrimages commence in stages as do our own spiritual pilgrimages. Preparation and trust in God are necessary for putting both feet in the same direction to move forward toward our pilgrimage’s fulfillment. Sometimes you pause for awhile, to wait and pray, like the pilgrims waiting for a boat to take passage across the sea to the shore of the Holy Land. Then to wait a couple weeks more until authorities let them debark. Even then, not with freedom to go where they wish, to pursue at will, but within the confines of the authorities’ directives and guides. Oh the joy, though, when their quest brings them to the path of our Lord, where they are moved to worship. We are welcomed to make our own spiritual pilgrimage as we follow the path of those who have gone on before us. I enjoyed the topic and the presentation. Illustrations and quotations enhance this book.

I have to say this book nailed it. I absorbed it while I read a section at a time. I wanted its message to go straight to my heart. And it did, really did. I have taken “praise” to heart. The challenge presented is to give praise in all things, both good and bad. I’m not used to thinking that way. To be honest, it seems backwards and a little daunting, perhaps. On the first page the statement is made: “Power … is released when we begin to praise God for everything in our lives instead of pleading with Him to change the circumstances that displease us.” Story after story shows where someone had a difficult circumstance they praised God for and continued to praise God for. Then it got interesting. The person they were giving praise for… would have a change of heart or the circumstance would have a positive turn around. I took up the challenge. I started implementing praise in my thoughts, prayers, and activities. To be honest, I felt some resistance to doing this. Already my views are changing concerning troubling issues. This book is packed full of verses that I’m highlighting. I intend to read these verses often to impress them in my thinking. Merlin Carothers also wrote “Prison to Praise,” which is distributed in prisons. I’m sure it is every bit as beneficial as this book.