Six Month Countdown Begins!

God willing, six months from today I will set out on my Camino. Where has the time gone?

Most of the clothing and equipment I plan on taking has been purchased at this point, though there are still a lot of fiddly things to get – lightweight containers (stuff sacks), for example.

I’m keeping track of some of the items on an Amazon wishlist. I wonder if the folks at Amazon ever thought their endless hours of technical development would be used for a “to do” list?

The main challenge now is saving up my pennies. I’ve never been good with this. Throughout my life, I’ve scrimped and saved, and then there’s always some sort of event that wipes it all out. Given my chosen career, many time that’s been my own unemployment, but sometimes it’s been some catastrophe or unanticipated expense. Everything from divorce, to cars breaking down, to house repairs, to medical expenses, to the sudden inexplicable need for an attorney.

And it doesn’t have to be a big expense, either. A small weekly expense can seriously cut into my best attempts to save.

This time, however, I feel like God is looking out for me. I mean, He’s always looking out for me, but this time it seems like He is helping in ways large and small.

For example, I recently volunteered in my parish to join the RCIA team. The classes are on Monday evenings. I’m very excited to be part of this, but it does create an additional expense.

The church is located closer to the train station than to my home, so just in terms of time, it makes better sense to eat dinner at the station rather than to come home and head back out.

It’s not a huge sum – last week I think I spent $14 – but that’s every week. It adds up. Between now and the Camino that works out to $336, and I can’t afford that.

When I got to the train station this morning, I noticed a flyer for $5 Mondays. A number of the eateries at the station are offering dinners – on Monday nights only – for five bucks.

Suddenly, that expense has dropped by almost two-thirds to something a great deal more manageable.

Now I can’t imagine that the restaurants are going to keep the deal going for six months, but I’m confident that something else will come along.

God provides.

I suppose another way to look at my inability to save is this: in every case where I (or someone in my family) had a sudden inexplicable need for cash, I had it. The fact that my savings were wiped out is immaterial; the money was there when it was needed.

Not to say that it’s been particularly comfortable along the way. At times it’s been darn UN-comfortable. But it has been sufficient.

Hopefully this time, I’m actually saving for what I think I’m saving for. I think I am. I think that God is calling me to the Camino for a reason and that He’s helping make sure that I make it there.

God provides.

It’s a hard thing to trust for most of us, but I’m learning bit by bit.

On this feast of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, let us all pray for that trust, the trust of a child for his Father.

O God, who open your Kingdom
to those who are humble and to little ones,
lead us to follow trustingly in the little way of Saint Thérèse,
so that through her intercession
we may see your eternal glory revealed.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.