A Protestant Pilgrimage...sort of

This is the room in Wartburg Castle where Martin Luther
spent ten months working on his translation of the New
Testament.

Since Em & I got to Europe I've talked about doing a tour of of Martin Luther's life.  Somewhere along the way, the plan shifted to a personal retreat weekend for me.  (I think Emily realized I was going to bore her to death talking about Reformation history and theology).  Anyway, I spent the last three days in Wittenberg, Erfurt, and Eisenoch hitting some of the high points of Luther's life.

I learned a few things about planning a personal retreat as well.  I've tried to do this several times since I first read Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster 13 years ago.  The first is having more of a plan.  Previously, my plan was just to pray, journal, and read scripture.  This time, I focused on the book of Romans and a biography of Luther.  Surprisingly, I spent less time thinking about humanities' depravity and more time thinking about God's love and ecclesiology.  Luther got sloppy with his theology of Church polity and I noticed how much of Romans is dedicated to addressing divisions between Jewish and Gentile Christians in the church of Rome.

I probably had too much windshield time, but I used the drives to listen to a sermon series on Romans from Andy Davis, my pastor when I lived in Texas.  The weekend was a great opportunity to rest mentally, physically, and spiritually.  I would have backed out of going last week, but Emily insisted that I go.  I'm greatful that she pushed me into keeping my plans.