The Pilgrims behind the great Pilgrimage!

I don’t know if you saw our most recent video… (since it first airs on Patreon) or if it’s the one that’s about to be released… I just don’t recall. But we recently returned from a huge trip out east and during that trip we stopped at Plymouth Rock! While we were there, we had the opportunity to see this statue of William Bradford, one of the first pilgrims. Let me give you some basic definitions here real quick… A “pilgrimage” is a pilgrim’s journey. What does that really mean? Wikipedia says, “A pilgrimage is often used to describe an individual’s journey through life… sometimes as a general description of personal growth and exploration, sometimes, as in Christianity, outlining a particular spiritual focus or pathway which it is believed will lead to an encounter with God.”

I’ve always loved the book Pilgrim’s Progress! It’s a phenomenal book about a young man named Christian who is on his beautiful journey with life’s difficulties and his backpack of burdens to eventually arrive at his destination, heaven. It’s a great read… As a pastor of Celebrate Recovery, we often talk about the “journey” of recovery. The “trip” of this lifetime that includes all of the hurts, habits, and hangups of life. So, when we started Post Family Pilgrimage, we wanted this to be about our journey… of course our big trips but also the highways, interstates, trails, and detours of life…. The good times, the bad times, the fun things we grasp and sometimes even the tools we use for this journey.

All of that to say that this statue meant a lot to us to pause, to reflect on the fact that at some point (1620) someone decided to adventure off from their comforts and their day to day lives to try to pursue something new… scary, dangerous, exciting, deadly, and dangerous. William Bradford was one of those people! We need more William Bradfords these days! Do you know what he endured? Check this out… Here’s what the Bradford Family Pilgrimage looked like:

From Wikipedia: Bradford's childhood was marked by numerous deaths in the family. He was just over a year old when his father died. His mother remarried when he was four years old, and he was sent to live with his grandfather. His grandfather died two years later, and he returned to live with his mother and stepfather. His mother died a year later, in 1597, and Bradford thus became an orphan at the age of seven and was sent to live with two uncles. His uncles wanted him to help on the farm, and he later noted in his journal that he suffered at that time from a "long sickness" and was unable to work. He, instead, turned to reading and became familiar with the Bible and classic works of literature. This is seen by some as a key factor in his intellectual curiosity and his eventual attraction to the Separatist branch of Puritan theology. He was married to Dorothy. On 17 December 1620, Dorothy fell from the deck of the Mayflower into the icy waters of Cape Cod Harbor, where the ship was anchored, and drowned. How sad is that? She had made it all the way there and then fell overboard! William was with others on an expedition ashore and only learned of her death on his return to the Mayflower. They had one son, John. John lived out his days in Connecticut and passed just over 50 years after the big pilgrimage.

Sometimes I wonder if William’s motivation was that he simply had nothing to lose? This, to me, is just a simple reminder that we all have a story…. We are all on a journey, a pilgrimage! So here’s a couple questions for ya… What has brought you to where you are today? Where’s your pilgrimage taking you?

Blessings,

Frankie

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