Walking the Sacred Road

Our first night in Rome, we wandered.

It wasn’t supposed to rain. The weather app promised a 0% chance. Instead, the skies opened, and we found ourselves standing under a tree with a group of strangers, all trying to stay dry. We had hoped to see the Colosseum at dusk. Instead, we received something unexpected.

The rain cleared the crowds.

As the storm passed, we found ourselves walking up an old cobblestone road on the edge of the Palatine Hill. At first it seemed like a dead end, but the winding path kept drawing us forward until we arrived at our first church in Rome, Chiesa di San Bonaventura al Palatino.

Compared to the grand churches that would follow, it was simple. Quiet. Peaceful. After a long day of travel, it felt like a gift.

One of our goals while in Rome was to step into the churches we encounter as we roamed the streets and pause to pray. Yes, we’ve visited the famous sites. We’ve encountered some of the tourist things. But the moments that have stayed with me are the quiet ones—lighting a candle, sitting in silence, praying alongside centuries of pilgrims who have come seeking peace, healing, wholeness, forgiveness, guidance, and hope.

Again and again, I have been reminded of the vastness of God’s family and the beauty of a faith that stretches across languages, cultures, and generations. Our faith does not belong to one people, nation or time.

As we left the church and began walking back down the hill, I noticed a street sign.

Via Sacra.

Sacred Road.

I stopped and looked back.

The setting sun was shining through an ancient archway, casting a golden light across an almost empty road. In that moment, I sensed God calling me back to the sacred road.

Not a road in Rome.

My road.

The path of following Jesus.

Somewhere along the way, I think I have become too comfortable. Too settled into routines. Too concerned with expectations and voices around me. I have spent a lot of time listening to others tell me who I should be and what kind of pastor I should become.

Without realizing it, I had started following other guides instead of my true Guide.

What is the sacred road?

For me, it is the path we choose to walk with Jesus.

The sacred road isn’t about having every turn mapped out. It is about paying attention to the One who walks beside us. Somewhere along the way, I had begun measuring my steps by other people’s expectations. Was I doing enough? Leading enough? Creating enough? I listened to voices telling me what a successful pastor should be, what a faithful Christian should accomplish, what the next season of ministry should look like. None of those voices were necessarily bad. But when they become louder than the voice of Christ, they can slowly pull us away from the path we long to walk.

The problem wasn’t that I had stopped believing or stopped serving. The problem was that I had stopped paying attention. Life had become full of responsibilities, deadlines, expectations, and routines. I was moving quickly, checking boxes, doing good work, but not always noticing where Jesus was leading. The pace itself had become a guide. Productivity had become a guide. Other people’s expectations had become a guide.

Standing on the Via Sacra, I began to wonder if I had wandered from the sacred road not through rebellion, but through distraction.

I think that’s why the crowds in Rome caught my attention.

Rome is filled with tour groups. At times the crowds are overwhelming. People move shoulder to shoulder, listening through earpieces that never quite stay in place, trying to keep sight of their guide’s raised flag, umbrella, or walking stick.

More than once I found myself accidentally following the wrong group.

It’s surprisingly easy to do.

And perhaps that is true spiritually as well.

We can become so focused on keeping up, staying with the crowd, doing what everyone else is doing, that we lose sight of the One we are actually meant to follow.

Later in the week, I woke before sunrise and returned to walk the Via Sacra again.

At six o’clock in the morning, the crowds were gone. The road belonged to the birds, the flowers, the soft light of dawn, and a handful of early risers.

I walked slowly.

Without the noise and distractions, I noticed things I had missed before. The scent of flowers. The sounds of the city waking up. The deep peace that comes when there is nowhere else to be.

And then I noticed something else.

Along the wall leading to the church were the Stations of the Cross.

The first time I had walked this road, I never saw them.

Now, in the quiet, I stopped at each station. I prayed. I lingered. I gazed at the images depicting Jesus’ journey to the cross.

At every station, I found myself asking the same question:

“God, what do you want from me now?”

Not five years from now.

Not after my sabbatical.

Now.

As I prayed, another question began to emerge:

“What are our next steps together?”

Those questions have continued to follow me—not only through Rome, but also through Assisi, and now as I prepare to spend time at Ghost Ranch.

Perhaps that is what pilgrimage does.

It does not always give us answers.

Sometimes it simply creates enough silence for us to hear the questions God has been asking all along.

Maybe that is why the Via Sacra captured my imagination.

The ancient Roman road was once filled with crowds, processions, and people moving from one place to another. Yet on that quiet morning, it became something else for me. A reminder that the sacred road is not found only in Rome. It can be found wherever we choose to walk attentively with God.

And maybe the sacred road is not a destination at all.

Maybe it is the daily choice to keep our eyes on Jesus, to walk slowly enough to notice what we missed before, and to trust that our true Guide is still leading us forward.

May my eyes stay on Jesus, my true Guide and Companion.