As I reflect on our recent trip to the Holy Land and its successes, I think one of the key ingredients was the OPEN HEARTS of the pilgrims that went with me. Everyone seemed ready to embrace new experiences, food, cultures, and meet new people.

I wonder what our “normal days” would be like if we approached them with the same openness of spirit.

One of the books I have been reading lately is the wonderful book by Lois Tverberg called Walking in the Dust of Rabbi Jesus: How the Jewish Words of Jesus Can Change Your Life. In it she lays out the common but unusual practice of how Jewish rabbis of that time taught their disciples – not with textbooks or course syllabus, but inviting them to literally follow them as they traveled and taught – to “walk after” them and learning from them by “covering yourself in his dust.” “You should follow so closely behind him as he traveled from town to town teaching that billows of sandy granules would cling to your clothes.”

Walking with Jesus, both literally and figuratively, was understood to be the way of a disciple. This is how your heart is changed. This would be how your overall lifestyle, your walk in life, would shift.

I was thankful for the openness with which those 18 pilgrims that went with me to the Holy Land engaged in this “walk.” They brought their whole selves – their joy, their willingness, their brokenness, their nervousness – all of it.

As we walked together, we certainly got good and dusty.

I pray that as you engage in your daily routine today, you look for ways that Jesus is inviting you to walk in his way. Is it listening extra hard to a friend in need and responding in grace? Is it turning from a craving to engage in more healthy behavior? Is it seeking more joy? Is it making a life change? Perhaps it has to do with nurturing a grateful heart.

In whatever way your walk in life goes today, may you walk with deliberateness in the footprints of the great Rabbi who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

-Matt