My Walk Club

Years ago as a young boy, I traveled with my parents back and forth to Pa almost every weekend.  They remodeled a 4 apartment building into 10 units.  My mother had a theory that if we lived in the unfinished part it would encourage us to work faster at finishing it.

So that meant living in the attic on weekends with the roof half open.  It meant removing the rolls of insulation from our beds at night and living what I recall as a spartan life at times.

Once our work weekend was done we would slip into the car and head home for school and work.  That was a whole new expedition.  We would carry boards in the car, usually a station wagon.  That way we could get up on I-81 before it was open.  We would move or go around the barricades and then put the boards down and drive the car over them to enter or exit along the way.

Before I-81, the trip was several hours longer going through all the small towns.   I-81 was the promise of a much shorter and easier trip.  During those years for me, Pa was a place to get away from.  So shorter was better and I was a willing accomplice.

So one rainy winters day we started home, tired and glad to be going.  We made the pilgrimage to the unopened highway and started up the high mountain slope outside of Wilkes-Barre, Pa.  Nearly to the top my father said the car was not acting right.  Maybe it was the transmission.  Looking over the valley it would be a long wait till help arrived.  Dad stopped the car and started to get out.  It wasn't the transmission but instead 3-4 inches of ice on the road.  Instantly fear overwhelmed us.  No guard rails, an unfinished roadway with 1-2 foot drop offs and nearly to top.

I cried to get out and walk but Dad would not let me.  Somehow he backed that car down the mountain and got us off the frozen interstate.

My relationship with my parents is strained still.  After many years they still want me to go for drives with them in that same vehicle.  I won't.

In many ways my experiences are no better or worse than others, but the point is more what we learn from them.  My life is very blessed now and has been for many years.

At some point in my life I got out of that car never to return.  There have been many times when my parents wanted me to go for a drive.  They don't understand but I have found my own way, my own walk.

So if you find yourself  distressed, in a car going where you don't want to go.  Just get out and start walking.  Your own walk.

Keep walkin

Ron

This whole blog may seem redundant but maybe that's who I am.  Real Estate is starting to come out of the tail spin it was in for the last year.  So I have actually been showing property and writing contracts.

In this upsurge of activity I have not given up walking.  What I have found over the last couple years is that walking helps me to renew each day.  Taking time to exercise, along with fellowship with Terri and friends is great.

Lately Terri and I get up about 5am and walk 3 or 4 miles.  On the late nights it can be a struggle but overall it is nice just to be with the one you love.  As Martha says "its a good thing".

Then I usually head back out with friends at 7am for another 4-5 mile jaunt.

Life is wonderful when you decide to live it!  The exercise is good, you release any tensions you have, you are refreshed, the scenery is amazing.  Your attitude for the day is expectant of new, wonderful things.  Your perspective is healthy in balance.  Your ying and yang are just downright HAPPY!

Example:  Yesterday we had an appointment for Kathryn's oral surgery consultation on her wisdom teeth.  Who knew we would be in the middle of hopefully the biggest love connection of the year.  The surgeon was warm, friendly and SINGLE.  He was receptive to meeting our friend.  So now he and his office staff are coming to our house next week for dinner to meet our friend.  There was electricity in the air so heavy you could cut it with a knife.

Now before the appointment, Terri and were having a minor but diverging discussion (she was ticked with me, I write smiling).    Anyway we weren't so caught up in ourselves that we weren't open to fate.   Like wild animals we caught the scent!  Like white on rice!  Ha Ha  so much fun so little time!

Who knew walking could do so much?

Keep walkin,

Ron

I was listening to Baxter Kruger while walking.  He is a theologian who was a student of Thomas Torrance in Scotland.   Overall organised religion is a turnoff to me.  Playing church is not a game I enjoy.  I wish I could buy it, but my heart is not in it.

So Dr. Kruger is a breath of fresh air.  One comment he made was about our enlightened state referring to how science and knowledge have brought us into a new era over the last hundred years or so (I am not a good historian so that hundred years is an estimate).

In all our knowledge we as individuals have been reduced to believing who and what we are make little or no difference in life or time.  We believe in the insignificance of our beings (my quote not his).  If that is true and I suspect it is, no wonder we have the mental issues and stress related symptoms of our day.  Hopeless is as hopeless does.

Now the bright spot.   Dr. Kruger says that is not true and in trinitarian thought the Father , Son and Holy Spirit invite us to share in their being.  Which translated into our everyday lives means all the groaning and stresses we go through are all part of the creation coming to know Him.  We aren't designed to play harps on clouds, or be placid waiting for GOD to take us off the shelf.  He wants us to be one with Him.

My soul has rechewed for two years a statement that Torrance made, " The Trinity invites us to know them as they know themselves".  I still can't explain that because I still don't perceive the depth of it.   It is becoming visible in my minds eye though.  Perhaps that is "salvation", our working out our relationship with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

So if all that is true and I suspect it is, then we are important to our Creator.  He invites us to relate to Him.  Through the incarnation of Jesus Christ we have access to this relationship.  While Jesus is the only begotten, we share equally as adopted sons and daughters in this relationship. We are not illegitimate bastards who stand trembling at the entrance of the mansion waiting to be summoned.  We are loved by the Father, Son and Holy Spirit just as Jesus is loved.   A relationship working itself out in creation to a grand fulfillment.  Loving and learning to be loved.  Wow!

I hope that isn't too wordy or heady, but I think that's why they call it the Good News!

Keep Walkin

Ron