As Tony and I have been reflecting on walking the Camino in our latest podcast, I have been re-reading the blogs I wrote as I walked the Camino Portugués. This is one of my favorites…

This house stopped us in our tracks and even though I was exhausted and my feet were aching, I perched on a rock to quickly sketch the basic shapes in my journal. Later, when the rain poured outside my Albuerge window, I used my bunk bed to film this time lapse.

Portugal (and Spain for that matter) are full of these abandoned houses. You see so many walking the Camino that it almost becomes commonplace. I always wonder about the story behind the house. Who lived there? What happened and why was it left to decay? This house was being reclaimed by the earth as roots had pushed up through the stones and the branches of several trees now spread their thick foliage to form a makeshift roof. You could see vestiges of the house’s former state in the pieces of railing still perched atop the stairs. This house was a total ruin and yet it was incredibly beautiful.

I think a lot about things being torn down so that new life can grow. I have experienced this so viscerally in my own life that the process of being forced to walk through it has enabled me to see beauty in the both the tearing and the growing; in both the breaking and the healing.

We never want to be torn down, but sometimes it is the only way we are able to see what is true and important in our lives. I can actually look back at the past 4 years and be thankful. I can see that it was part of my story; the story that God is writing to pull me closer to Him. I can see that it brought me to a place where I can embrace what is true and important in my life and not be afraid of the unknown. The blank canvas that was once so terrifying is now a open door inviting me in.

I hope this will encourage you. Whatever challenge you are facing in your life right now that feels like it is breaking you is also building you up. It is making you stronger and more beautiful even if it feels just the opposite.

I pray that new life will continue to take root in me. That it will wrap itself around my foundations and eventually burst through my walls; ever so slowly growing and changing me into a new creature.