all who wander

so, for the first day of my christian imagination class the prof, tony funk, asked his students to write a short story... on the spot.

our inspiration was driven by bach, playing in the background, and this picture- rembrandt's "the return of the prodigal son"- sitting on the desk in front of us.

so i started writing this story, pulling out random thoughts of my road trip to canmore last summer, and stories told to me of south america, from peace teams and missional friends, aka friends who visited these places (what do you call them?). for the record i am not from canmore, and i have never been to colombia or bolivia.

"...god only knows."

"why did you make me this way", the pilgrim whispered, half in desperation, half in frustration. "i don't make sense," he continued, "the things i do trying to find acceptance. i walked 30 days to the top of this damn mountain, trying to find peace... i may as well have stayed home..."

its at this point that i start telling my story. How i found, in all my blessing, that i was unhappy and empty... how i was constantly discontent, always longing for something deeper, having it always out of my reach.
i started this life in a small canadian home in the rockies, outside canmore, alberta. god knows how it brought me to colombia and bolivia. god knows because god dragged me here... well, thats not fair i suppose. god just gave me a longing to leave that consumed my dreams, filled my thoughts, kept me awake at night. i couldn't escape it. i call it... a call. this call took me from a comfortable middle class "insurance salesman's son", destined for great things, enrolled at SAIT- to cashing in my tuition, in favor of running from guns and standing in peace lines in south america.
the rest of my story is what cause me to to climb the most unexplored hill i could find, hoping to hear the voice of god- just tell me what he was thinking, and not leave me to assume. god only knows how much of the story will help me find something. my name is "pilgrim".
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and for the record the character's name in the story is not really pilgrim... its paul. and someday, i will get around to finishing this story.

-adam.