As I was walking through the slums of Cusco, Peru, a taxi driver pulled up and asked if I needed a ride. I said “no gracias”/ “no thanks” I like to walk. His response was a common one, “why.”

Heads up – this is where I go all church geek:
Those of you who know my preaching, my theology and person spiritual journey, know that I believe to know God we need to know Jesus and the only true way to do this is to know the wounds of Jesus. To touch the wounds of Jesus. To do this we need to know the wounds of the world. This is a part of the Incarnation. Wether it be the in slums of Cusco, the ruins of the Inca – a once great nation of people, our politically and economically forgotten inner cities, a student stressed to the point of contemplating suicide in a suburban high school, a gay kid afraid for his safety if he comes out, an old man at the bed side of the fading love of his life, a girl who has been told that she is not pretty/thin/popular enough or a beggar on the street……. – to know Jesus, like Thomas, we need to touch his wounds. Only then can we fully proclaim “my Lord and my God” in our words and though our lives.

Tomorrow I get picked up at 5:30am to leave on my trek. 5 days of walking in the mountains, through sacred lands in very thin places. Thin places where the veil between us and God feels like you can reach right through and feel the other side. Where God’s presence is not clouded by the here and the now. This is why I love the mountains, the pure and rugged beauty of it all – you just know that you are in a holy place.