¶ Discovering Purpose Through Pilgrimage Walks
All right , hello and everybody . Welcome back to God's Diamonds in the Rough . We are so glad to be here one more time . You don't know who I am . I am Catherine .
And I'm Michael .
And we have a special guest and his name is Reno . Reno , please say hello to everybody .
Hello , great to be with you guys .
All right . Well , today , y'all , we are talking about purpose , purpose , purpose , purpose , and after we pray y'all know we got to do it Mr Reno is going to come in and he's going to tell us a bit about himself and how he's . What is , what the message is ? I guess you would say that the Lord has given him for us , amen .
So let's quickly pray and then we're going to get right into it .
All right , Dear Heavenly Father , our Lord and our Savior , Jesus Christ , we just come to you right now saying thank you . Thank you for your grace and your mercy , Thank you for your love and kindness and tender mercy . We pray in the name of Jesus . The Holy Spirit will just have its way .
We counsel any assignment of the enemy that will be sent back into the pit of hell where it came from , for it has no power , no dominion , no authority in us . But your word does . We pray in the name of Jesus again , that your Holy Spirit will just have its way .
We beg your forgiveness for anything we might have said , done or thought that's not pleasing your sight that you'll aggressively forgive it and cast it back into the picture of hell where it came from . We pray in the name of Jesus , interceding for the ones who know you and don't know how to get to you .
We pray interceding for the ones that have no desire to know who you are . We even pray , for the name of Jesus , for the ones who just need your grace . We just ask you to give it to them , these things and all things we ask , all in Jesus' mighty name . We say thank you . We say amen .
Amen .
And amen .
Amen , amen . So alright , mr Reno , tell us a little bit about yourself .
A little bit of your history . Okay , I was born and grew up in South Africa , in the KwaZulu-Natal province , and I was a privileged white person in a white community . And when I went to school , I realized that something was wrong in my country and that something was seriously wrong , because I basically grew up on a farm . I grew up with the Zulus .
We sometimes sat at a fireplace in the evenings , they told lovely old stories and we had fun . We swam in rivers . And when I was a teenager , I became politicized , I started reading about my country's history and , uh , it ended up me becoming a , a journalist , a reporter for a daily newspaper in durban , a coastal city in durban .
And um , south africa was at that time going through a very traumatic period , with lots of people being detained without trial , and the situation was becoming more and more desperate . And that led to me leaving the country my home country and going to Germany to go to the country of my ancestors .
My great-grandfather was actually a missionary who immigrated to South Africa and I followed my roots and I stayed in a small village where my great-grandfather actually trained as a missionary .
I went and researched in the old church archives , found out a lot about my great-grandfather and thought , well , okay , I'll stay in this old country of my ancestors for a while . Before moving to Australia , australia was my destination . Wow , actually , that's awesome . Before moving to Australia , australia was my destination . Wow , actually .
That's awesome , but I ended up staying there for many years because I found a job with an international news agency and I worked for this news agency for almost 20 years and had a very interesting time . I saw the Berlin Wall come down , the Iron Curtain fall .
I went back to South Africa for several months to do the transition from apartheid to democracy and I was very fortunate in that early period to actually having met Nelson Mandela in his home just a few months after his release from prison , which is a very , very insightful and eventful experience .
And what really impressed me about this man was his total lack of hatred and vindictiveness . He was all about forgiving and finding healing , creating a new rainbow nation where people of all races and ethnic groups could live peacefully with each other . Amen .
Go ahead .
And so I covered that story . I went back to the home base in Hamburg , germany , after the elections in 94 . But then the digital media started changing the whole media environment and I became very unhappy in the media industry . I lost my sense of purpose because we were no longer doing .
We did very little on the spot reporting with cost cutting , retrenchments , people losing their jobs . And I was at a real low point in my life in an unhappy marriage , and a friend of mine said well , why don't you go and take a walk on the Camino , this ancient pilgrimage route in Spain which goes back many , many centuries ?
And I read this book by Paulo Coelho , the Brazilian author , called the Pilgrimage . I read that book in one night and a few days later I took a plane to Spain and I did my first walk on the Camino , my first pilgrimage walk , which wasn't very long , it was only a week .
But I was unprepared , I had no real training and well , I thought , well , what is this about this ancient pilgrimage route ? Something stirred inside me and I went back the following year to do the whole route over five weeks , with the whole route being something like 500 miles , walking 12 to 15 miles each day .
And that walk really changed my life , completely changed my life .
So since then I have done this walk more than a dozen times and have met some of the most fascinating people on this walk and we're talking about purpose and living God's destiny and the people I've met on the Camino , on this ancient pilgrimage route many of them , if not most of them have gone through a traumatic life experience , they've gone through the loss
of a loved one , they've gone through divorce , they've faced financial disaster , they've they at an at a point in life where they looking or searching for meaning and for purpose .
And they take this walk that the ancients have walked for many centuries , treading the paths of these people who did the pilgrimage over many centuries , and I would call this path a holy path .
It is definitely a holy path because , over the centuries , so many millions of people have walked this pilgrimage route , asking the same old question where do I come from and where am I going ? Where do I come from and where am I going in life ? What is my destiny , what is my life , what is my purpose in life ?
And many people discover their purpose on this ancient route . Because what happens when you go on this long walk ? You uh face flat on the ground moments . You really uh dig deep into your uh , your own shadow and your own demons and past trauma . You , you uh , you basically , um , basically , lose the ego mind and you become naked in a sense .
You get to know who you really are Right , and that's why many people like myself continue doing this walk . Every year . I do this pilgrimage walk every year , not for five or six weeks , but I do try and do it two or three weeks at a time .
So , with that being said , would you say that we have too many distractions in our world ? I mean , I don't know that for where you are , but I know here sounds like we got too many distractions to where we can't hear God , and that's really the purpose of the walk .
You are , you . You are so , absolutely right . There are so many of these distractions pulling at us , uh , telling us you should be like this , you should be like that , and uh , what ? What is life about ? Life is about discovering your authentic , god-given purpose of who you are meant to become from the day you were born .
And as you are walking and and I'm saying walking without electronic distractions uh , you're walking . You're basically walking off old patterns , you're walking off your ego mind , the ego mind telling you what you're not supposed to be , right , right , right . Because that distractive world out there is , of course , an image , a world , an illusionary world of images .
It's always trying to sell us something , right ? And ? And our social media world out there , what is ? What is it doing ? It's feeding on negativity , yeah , all the time . On toxic emotions , yeah , on , on , on , on . On the yeah , on the shadow , on grievance culture .
Yeah , absolutely .
And the path of light , of course , is about tolerance , compassion , kindness , compassion , kindness . The other path is destruction , is hate , is vindictiveness , is hysteria .
Amen Amen .
Yeah , I have a question .
I'm sorry , were you finished ? Let's go ahead and ask you a question .
Yes , go ahead .
Michael . So why is spending time in nature so important ?
Because I am convinced from my own walks in nature , spending many weeks in nature , that nature is an expression of the creation .
God expresses himself through creation and when you're in the midst of nature , you perceive the interconnectedness of all things , be it the small beetle , the flower , the bird , and your own breathing and your own finding your own rhythmic nature , rhythmic nature , finding back your own authentic nature as you slow down and as you perceive those , those moments of
presence that you can never perceive if you are constantly distracted . So I think , I think spending time in nature is reconnecting with self-purpose . It's showing us that we are part of all this great big matrix of creation .
¶ The Power of Pilgrimage and Nature
I have a friend of mine who her name is Amy and she oftentimes takes nature walks and she actually has her church in the forest and I just kind of I mean , I understood the concept , but I just hear you and it really just brings me back to her and why it's important for her to be , I guess , one with nature .
She does photography and when she does photography there's a lot of , you know , animal leaves in the ground , just all kinds of things of that sort , and I just hear a connection here to what she's doing and why she does it through you . So I thank you for that . Definitely . Let's ask you another question .
I would definitely say you know when and this is me thinking you know they . They always say you know when you read . The more you read you strengthen your brain and the way I can see about nature , the more that you adapt to nature , the better your perspective of life .
Yes , absolutely , I agree . Yeah , yeah . What I found on my walks is that when I come onto this path after the first few days I'm all stressed out from you know the stresses of life and gradually the senses open up .
After three , four days you start perceiving nature , you start hearing those birds , you start smelling the aroma of the flowers , the herbs , and the amazing thing is nature starts coming closer . The amazing thing is nature starts coming closer . I've experienced birds , blackbirds following me for a long stretch of the road .
Stray dogs and cats would start walking with you . And that won't happen when you're all stressed out and when you're all far away , with your monkey mind , with your thoughts elsewhere and not in that present moment . That's interesting .
There was one experience I had where I was sitting meditating at a table picnic table out in the wilds and this robin came down , sat on the table and started singing . It was literally right in front of me . Oh wow , and it was one of those magical experiences .
Right right , right , so do you sleep .
Why did the bird do that ?
Do you sleep on this , I mean ?
how do you sleep and stuff .
I mean what do you bring with you ? I mean yeah .
Well , you stay in pilgrimage hostels . There are pilgrims' hostels along the route , there are monasteries where you can stay in and there are ordinary hotels , and accommodation , of course , is well catered for . But there are times when of course , you don't necessarily have to sleep outdoors .
That's how I was going to say I was about to say so , you got to sleep outside .
But we're talking northwestern Spain , where it gets pretty cold at night . Even in summer it gets quite nippy and it rains , so it's better to find a place to sleep .
Okay , so is Spain the only place that they have these pilgrimages ?
Actually , the whole of Europe in the medieval times was a network of pilgrimage routes , and the Camino de Santiago , of course , is just the most famous one , because , according to the legend , the remains of St James were buried where we find today's cathedral , the Cathedral of Santiago , and that's where the early pilgrims went on their pilgrimage to go and see the
burial site of St James , and this tradition , of course , has been maintained by Catholicism over the centuries . You did penance by going on a pilgrimage , and sometimes these pilgrims went on behalf of their whole extended family .
The family would provide the resources for one member of the family to go on a pilgrimage , and many of these ancient pilgrims , of course , never returned , because this was a very dangerous path in medieval times . You died of disease by drinking bad water , or you were killed by robbers or you sustained injury . By far it wasn't the route we see today .
Of course , many of the paths are very ancient , but today you have a small village and a cafe , a restaurant , every five to six kilometers , so if you are fit and you are well-trained , you can quite easily do this walk .
Interesting . So what makes the difference between a hike , the hike , and a deep walk ? I mean , what's the difference ?
The hike I would describe as a physical endeavor . You want to improve your exercise , your health . You go on a hike . The deep , meditative walk , the pilgrimage walk , is the reconnection to your inner spark , your soul purpose , your sole purpose .
You are taking a pilgrimage , a deep walk to find an answer to some of life's crucial , key questions , and what I found is that many people who do the Camino , the pilgrimage walk , start off calling themselves a hiker , but over the weeks , while doing this walk , they become pilgrims , they reconnect and become pilgrim walkers .
This is what I call deep walking walk walking with a , a purpose in mind , with a question , modeling a question .
That's awesome . So , Michael , you got a question .
I was just thinking . When you say you walk that many miles , I can only imagine that that has to be a strain for somebody that's not fit , because I consider myself pretty fit and I remember one time I had a walk from my job seven miles and it felt like it was 70 miles . It has you have to be definitely , I guess .
I guess you , I guess I would say you have to be definitely not just physically fit but mentally fit as well to do that .
Well , I would definitely advise people who want to do this walk to train , to do some exercise and do some walking before they start this walk . Do some exercise and do some walking before they start this walk . But I have seen people who've just come out of cancer therapy who've done the whole camino walk over six weeks .
I have seen people in their mid 80s , late 80s doing the entire walk . So there you go . The mind , the power of the mind , the power of faith is so much bigger than what your mind is telling you , your ego mind is telling you .
Tell us about your books . You have a couple of books written right . Tell us about them .
You have a couple of books written right , tell us about them . Yeah , the first book I wrote is Walking on Edge . This is based on my first walks .
It's a novel and it's a compilation of stories I heard from fellow pilgrims and I've compressed that into a story of a fictional character called Jake meeting a fellow pilgrim , and this fellow pilgrim is a kind of mentor for him along this walk . They take together over several weeks , take together over several weeks .
The deep walking book that came out 2020 is a chapter by chapter description of lessons I myself learned on that Camino , like the magic of the moment , meditating on the walk , confronting your inner demons , the shadow , how to emotionally shift from a low point to a high vibrational energy .
And my latest book , of course , is that's just come out the Turning of the Circle , the circle , embracing nature's wisdom for purposeful living , what we just spoke about , where I and and the mystics the ancient mystics always believe this that the creation , uh , the diversity of creation , is an expression of the divine .
Amen , Sounds like it's going to be a good thing . So , as we come into a close here , can you share with that audience how they can get your to get your books ? And looks at it says you got video courses . Can you tell them where they need to go ?
to do that , all I need to do is go on my website , wwwreynogivercom , and I'll give a description of my books and of my courses , and you can also find me on Facebook , on Instagram and on LinkedIn .
You have anything else you want to say , Michael ? Oh no , you have anything else you want to say .
Michael , oh no , I mean I'm very impacted on you know , with everything you're saying , because you know that makes us think , really think . You know all the negativity that the enemy tries to put on us . You know it's far more purpose for what God has intended on us .
Absolutely , absolutely . I personally I'm just very impressed . I mean , I knew walking was a thing and you know walking you can really hear God if you be quiet . But I just didn't like art .
I didn't realize it could be that impactful Because art , if you be quiet , it could be that impactful because art , if you be quiet and you just kind of move with whatever you're doing , whether it's watercolors or whatever have you , you can get God can speak to you in that .
And you know the fact that if you're sitting , cause I remember exercise we did when I was in high school and they made us all go outside and sit on the hill and just be quiet , close our eyes , and how school and they made us all go outside and sit on the hill and just be quiet , close our eyes , and how how much our body physically intensifies to
everything else around it , like I could really hear the birds singing , I could really hear the wind and the trees moving . It's just powerful , powerful , powerful . So you know I , I get it , I 100 get , and it just makes me want to go on a little longer walk the next time . I walk Absolutely .
So , reno , do us a solid and give your ultimate message to the world and wrap us up with prayer . We would certainly appreciate it and we certainly appreciate you for being here . Amen , yeah , amen .
Thank you very much . The message I want to really put out there is that you are born to become who you really are , really are . Find those places of solitude , those places of quiet presence to sink into your true nature , be it through walking , or be it in a quiet room , or be it meditating on music , on a painting .
There's different methods for different people , but we are all different . We all have a different purpose in the bigger matrix of creation .
Amen , so would you close us out with prayer .
Yes , yes , yes , yes . Let's just close our eyes and just inhale and exhale . Through your breathing , feel that greater presence within you . Call it God , call it the universal intelligence , call it creation , your inner soul purpose . By inhaling , I know that I'm inhaling and by exhaling , I'm aware that I'm exhaling .
Father , we thank you so much for this word and we thank you so much for this time with Reno . God , we pray that you would bless his ministry and bless all that you're doing in him . Continue to give him a voice for the people , Lord . We just pray in the name of Jesus for all that he's doing in this earth .
God , I pray , Lord , that you would just bless him as you see fit . We thank you for every diamond that is here , everyone that is listening . We just pray , Lord , that you would bless , continue to bless this ministry as well and continue to bless all that is going forth for you . Lord , we thank you so much for jesus .
Thank you so much for grace , mercy and your love . We pray this prayer and we ask it all in jesus christ's name . We do pray amen amen and amen amen thank you so much um mr reno for being here . We appreciate it . Thank you so much , amen .
We appreciate you so so much , Mr Reno , for being here . We appreciate it .
Thank you so much , Amen . We appreciate you so so much , Honey . You have any final Amen ?
Amen .
Do you have anything else you need to say or want to say , Mr Reno ?
Amen to you , blessings to you .
Blessings to you as well , amen , and you're doing great work .
Thankings to you , blessings to you as well , amen , and you're doing great work .
Thank you so much . We're trying to be the blessing Amen , as Jesus has been to us . Amen All right , everybody .
Y'all know what time it is . Until next time , remember you are a diamond in the rough .
Amen , amen , all right , all right .
So stick around .
Oh yeah , don't go anywhere yet here she go . Yeah , yeah , eighty one percent , that was great . Thank you so much . We she go . Yeah , 81% , that was great . Thank you so much . We appreciate you . We appreciate you being here with us . Yes .
That , by the way , is a very good slogan . I am a diamond .
Yeah , because we are .
Absolutely we are . We are Let the diamond shine , that's right At the end of the day .
Let it shine . It's shining in him . You can go to our website . It's at the bottom of the screen . You can get any of this stuff . You can get the shirt it's a hoodie . You can get the hat .
You got a coffee cup on there . You got coffee cups .
We got slippers that you put on your feet . We got all kinds of T-shirts .
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