(The following series will have post dated timestamps, because a bulk of their content was written in a real notebook)
Wednesday, March 2, 2016
Caddo Lake State Park, TX
The other week when my work schedule was posted I noticed three days off in a row, which was unusual. I noted the peculiarity, and was slightly saddened at the lack of hours, but soon decided to make the most of it.
I have recently finished reading the book, “A Year of Living Prayerfully” by Jared Brock. In it, he travels the world seeking out as many different prayer traditions connected to the Christian faith as he can. His journey is entertaining on its own, but his stories opened me up to some things in my faith. I came away with some new tools and approaches for prayer, but more importantly an impetus to develop a hunger for and a discipline of prayer in my daily life.
One particular tradition stuck out to me: the pilgrimage. Brock’s stories reinforced the cliche of the journey and the destination, that traveling hundreds of miles in silence and solitude but with the Lord has infinitely more value than the old bones of a saint.
These three days offered me the opportunity to get away and spend some quality time in solitude. So last week I made my plan, rented a car, and got out of town as early as I could this morning. Early on in the drive, I was just trying to get comfortable in the Corolla I had picked up. I’m pretty sure it’s the only car I have ever driven that was produced in this decade, and I will have a full consumer reports review of it after I get back. But once the cruise control was set, all I had was the open road and silence. I have made long drives before, but typically with the company of a travel companion or NPR, but since this was me and prayer, no radio.
The drive down to Caddo Lake was fairly productive. Another bit I took away from Brock’s book was the value of scripted or form prayers. I never thought a prayer from a book could be genuine, but the purpose of a memorized prayer is that bits of life will act as triggers, reminding you of the prayer, and you can then meditate on it and it’s implications. I even came up with one of my own which I feel will be a useful tool.
I stopped for gas in Little Rock. The First Pentecostal Church there is huge, and gaudy, and beautiful.
I arrived here at camp with ample sunlight to walk the grounds. They have a nature trail, a swamp, and an old WPA Era pavillion. It’s a pretty good spot, but unless you have a boat to take on the lake, I don’t see its appeal as a camping park, you can explore about the whole thing in a day. Nice, though.
But of course, a true pilgrimage, while the journey is the important part, it is vital to have a destination. And this small, eastern Texas state park, while nice, is no shrine…
another white suburbanite 