We Are All Pilgrims

In a recent general conference President Uchtdorf said, “In the end, we are all pilgrims seeking God’s light as we journey on the path of discipleship” (Receiving a Testimony of Light and Truth, Oct 2014).  In this last general conference Sister Wixom quoted this same statement (Returning to the Faith, April 2015).  If we are all pilgrims, what does it mean to be one? 

One definition of the word is “a person who journeys, especially a long distance, to some sacred place as an act of religious devotion.”  Being a pilgrim them seems to involve both journeying and seeking a sacred destination.  One of the reasons the word is common to Christians is because of Paul and Peter’s usage of it in the New Testament.  Paul wrote of the ancient patriarchs who “died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off… and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth” (Hebrews 11:13).  Peter wrote in his epistle, “Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshy lusts, which war against the soul” (1 Peter 2:11).  In his salutation to the Saints he addressed “the strangers scattered” and the root word in Greek there is the same as the two references to pilgrims. So Peter and Paul saw both Old Testament prophets and New Testament Saints as pilgrims.  According to the concordance of the Bible that I have, the word in Greek signifies “sojourning in a strange place, away from one’s own people.”  So the idea of the word seems to be that we on earth are away from our heavenly home but are journeying to make it back to our “own people,” in particular to God and His Son.  Being a pilgrim seems to imply that we aren’t just strangers on earth but that we are earnestly seeking to make progress in our journey.  The word is also common for Christians because of the book Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan in the 17^th century.  Elder David Baxter quoted the book in the October 2006 general conference, saying, “In his description of a pilgrim’s, or disciple’s, progress, John Bunyan wrote:

‘Who would true valour see,

Let him come hither!

One here will constant be,

Come wind, come weather;

There’s no discouragement

Shall make him once relent

His first avowed intent

To be a pilgrim.’”

To me the message is that we should let nothing stop us from journeying back to our heavenly home; we must not only be a wanderer on earth but we must also have a celestial destination that we are striving for.  This is our “avowed intent” of life.  As Christians we are indeed “all pilgrims” and we move forward hoping that our earthly journey will one day “land [our] souls… at the right hand of God in the kingdom of heaven” (Helaman 3:30).