Unction. (What a great word.) Most of what we get involved in, that is really wonderful, is the product of unction, because the word describes a particular action of God in our lives. While it has a mysterious quality to it, we know when it hits us because it sort of takes us over. We find that we might be doing something that is beyond normal, perhaps beyond reason, but that which we have to do none-the-less. Instead of fighting the “urge” to do the thing, we find we are fighting everyone else who thinks differently; who thinks we’re crazy or irrational. Unction is, therefore, both thrilling and awe-inspiring at the same time. Unction does present certain problems…
What if? At this point the realist will point out that mistakes can be made in life; that there are those who claim an unction was responsible for something that turned out poorly. I suppose we can always judge a thing after-the-fact, but do we really know what God is up to? To eliminate acting upon unction from one’s life is to remove the wonder of it all, I think, and reduce us to robotic lives based upon what others think. We will have to be responsible one way or the other, so I think it’s better to allow the wonder, the awe, the thrill, as much as possible. If our actions turn out to be foolish, they will reveal themselves as such and we will have to address it. But to never follow the path of God giving us a real unction would be to greatly limit His work in our lives, and that would be far worse.
On January 11, 2013, Skip and Carol watched the movie The Way, starring Martin Sheen, about the Camino de Santiago. While we’d never heard of it before, we were definitely struck by something, which I’m calling unction, especially since we both felt the same about it at the same time. We learned about an ancient pilgrimage through Spain and immediately planned to go. At first we planned on going in 2014, but after about two weeks confessed to one another that we’d like to go this year, and again we agreed immediately. This is not normal. But this is surely awesome. When married folks are in such unity it is indeed wonderful, and thus the plan was hatched.
We leave Portland, OR on April 22 and arrive back on June 4, if the Lord wills!! I’ll try to post updates as we go along, depending on my computer skills and the availability of such, so visit this site again if you’re interested. To answer many questions, go to http://www.americanpilgrims.com/ and learn as much as you wish about the Camino de Santiago.