Just What I Needed

Needs versus wants.

I talk about them nearly every day, with my wife, my kids, in budget meetings at work. Usually it is focused on tangible things. In my life I have come to understand several things I wanted were really things to fill a need I didn’t know I held within me. At church many years ago I attended a meeting I was invited to by a dear friend. The meeting was with a group of folks who had attended a “Walk to Emmaus” retreat. I was being asked to attend a retreat. I don’t do retreats. It was not something I wanted to do. However, something inside me said I should. Life happens, they say, and I had too much going on to allow me to attend the weekend as the date approached.

Several years went by and another friend asked me as he did nearly every week at church, “How’s your heart?” I answered as you would if someone asked, ” How are you?” I replied, “Fine thanks.” But this time, that question hit me and stuck to my ribs. It wouldn’t go away. I suddenly recalled that meeting about that Walk to Emmaus. My friend who had asked previously had moved away. I actively asked and found someone who would sponsor me.

I went on my walk in South Florida. It profoundly changed my life. I felt a click in me over the weekend that I had never had prior. I felt something move inside me. I felt a warmth unknown to me.

What is the Walk to Emmaus? It is a wonderful experience that is difficult to explain. Yes, there are talks, fifteen talks on many subjects. It creates an opportunity to talk, share, discuss the topics while forging relationships with other Christian men or woman (There is a separate walk for each) However, it is best not to anticipate and just experience the weekend as it unfolds. I personally felt Christ come to me in a way I had never felt before. What it did for me was help me know that I was truly loved. It opened my eyes to all of him; Father, Son and Spirit. I impressed how important it is to have a support network to help encourage and support each other. We all need support in our walk in life.

I am mostly a solitary and quiet person. I keep things close to the vest. However what I learned that weekend was that I was meant for so much more than I knew I was by engaging others. I stay in touch with the men I went with and shared a table with. We have reunion meetings and discuss things that are kept between us. We encourage, we pray, we serve alongside Christ. I volunteered to work a weekend (A six month commitment of preparation leading to the weekend it self) I felt compelled to help others experience what I had experienced. I have become our Church’s Emmaus Coordinator with my wife.

The Walk to Emmaus was just what I needed. I just didn’t know it.

Proverbs 27:17 “Iron sharpens iron, So one man sharpens another.”