Shepherded | Surely Goodness and Mercy Will Follow Me All My Life - Psalm 23 - Clint Leavitt

What if the hardest stretches of our lives are not detours from the journey but the very heart of it? This week, the ancient pilgrimage of the Camino de Santiago invites us to reimagine our walk with God not as a series of quick victories but as a long obedience in the same direction. Psalm 23 serves as our guide, and this week we land on one of its most quietly radical claims: that goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of our lives. Not occasionally. Not when we deserve it. All the days. We unpack what those two words, goodness and mercy, actually mean in the depth of their biblical usage, and what we find is far richer than religious sentiment. Goodness points to beauty, dignity, and the moral fabric of a life lived as it was designed. Mercy speaks of a steadfast, covenant love that rushes toward us even in our failures. Together, they are not gentle companions who stroll behind us at a comfortable distance. The Hebrew word translated as follow carries the force of a relentless pursuit, a hounding, a chasing. This is the kind of love that lays in wait for us even in our most bitter and barren seasons. If you have ever wondered whether God is truly present in your pain, this message is an honest and grounding answer.