Our friends went on an adventure of a lifetime. After retiring from the military, Angie and Bryan embarked on the Camino Portuguese—a two-week hiking pilgrimage that took them over 180 miles from Sé Cathedral in Porto to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. 

Before they left on the trip, they etched their names on some rocks and brought them along, knowing that many pilgrims place rocks at a monument along the way. This is a way of symbolically letting something go. After carrying that extra weight for 13 days, they left their rocks at the foot of a cross—and then kept walking.

What a beautiful picture of the reality for everyone who believes in Jesus. When you approach Jesus’ cross, you get to leave your pain, hurts, sins, and the weight of the troubles you face there, all because Jesus said, “It is finished” (John 19:30). His pilgrimage on earth and his sacrifice on a cross have brought you peace with God. 

When you leave all that at his cross, you get to spend more time thinking about the empty tomb, knowing that “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).

When you leave your old self at the foot of Jesus’ cross, you spend the rest of your pilgrimage walking by faith.