There are some Psalms that just speak to me. It doesn’t seem to matter what’s going on in my life, I read them and I am challenged.

Psalm 84 has always been one of those. Then I participated in the Beth Moore Psalms of Ascent study and an entirely new layer was exposed. This week our pastor taught on Psalm 84, and I’m back to meditating on this Psalm and what it means to live a life of pilgrimage.

Life is a series of journeys. When I first typed this, I added a question at the end. But as I continue to think about it, I realize there is not question. Instead, it is a statement of fact. Life is a journey. And like all journeys it has highs and lows.

I am by nature risk-adverse and an explorer. The two often war with each other. I’ll walk the rim of the Grand Canyon 8 months pregnant, but for much of my life I’ve lived a life desperate to avoid pain. Maybe it’s because I am a writer — I can easily place myself inside the pain others are experiencing. I can slip into a series of what-if, worse-case scenarios in a heartbeat. Yet, if I live there, I don’t allow myself or those I love to live a life of walking the rims of God’s beauty.

Lately several worship songs have hammered home a theme: God makes me brave. It is because of Him that I can dare to go on pilgrimage. It is His strength that carries me from journey to journey. Whether it’s a time of blessing or a time that pushes me to my knees under a burden of pain that threatens to overwhelm me, He is there to lift my head above the waves and carry me in His strength.

I know this to the fiber of my existence. I know He will not forsake me. I know that He will never leave me. I know that His love for me far exceeds my love for Him. I know that when I can’t feel His presence He is still there. I know that in the darkest moments of my life, He has held me and cried with me.

So I set my heart on pilgrimage. I set my heart on seeking Him and His presence. Wherever that takes me, I am willing to follow. May my life be one of always moving toward Him and a willingness to follow Him no matter what comes.