Are You a Pilgrim?

America marks it's first Thanksgiving Day by the Pilgrims who left Plymouth, England in 1620 and came to what is now Massachusetts.  They were "separatists" whose convictions would not let them live under the dictates of the Church of England which basically was Roman Catholicism.   These people first tried to settle in the Netherlands for twelve years, but feared losing their identity in that culture.  So they made the huge decision to move far away to the New World where they could at least be in an English colony, but also have the freedom to live out their faith more closely like the early church Believers which earned them the name "Puritans" for their desire to purify the Church.

They never made it to the English colony of Virginia and settle in Cape Cod.  They came with 102 people and within the first year 50 had died.  Indians in the area agreed to a treaty of mutual aid and respect and proved to be a tremendous help to their survival.  On December 13 of 1621 these settlers held a 3-day feast to celebrate and give thanks to God for their first bountiful Fall harvest, and they invited their new tribal friends to join them.  These people were called Pilgrims from the outset, which by definition means "a person who goes on a long journey often with a religious or moral purpose, and especially to a foreign land."

Are you a Pilgrim?  You have probably sung the words by Richard Gillard, 
We are pilgrims on a journey.
We are brothers on the road.
We are here to help each other
Walk the mile and bear the load.

We spiritualize the concept of being a pilgrim by making our journey through life a pilgrimage in which we have chosen to leave the sinful lures of this world and live as a citizen in the Kingdom of God.  But have any of us ever really considered that God may lead us to become pilgrims and travel to a foreign land solely because God puts that calling or conviction upon us?  And going to the Holy Land or on a mission trip can be a "pilgrimage," but moving somewhere else permanently is another thing altogether.

Even with the need of passports and immigration laws, the world is more accessible to us now than it was for those Pilgrims on the Mayflower.  So, what would it look like to go live somewhere other than America?  For most of us this has always been totally unthinkable--everybody wants to come here!  I'm sure the Pilgrims who left England were considered to be brain-washed lunatics who followed some leader like those that followed Jim Jones to Guyana and to their deaths.   But therein lies the difference: some people follow a man, and we are called to follow the Son of Man.  Satan is a deceiver, but the Spirit of the LORD will lead those that are fully surrendered to His will.  Jesus is the only One I will follow, and Wherever He Leads I'll Go!