Walking to Work, or Working to Walk

Walking. In 2007 it has a different meaning in the United States than it did 100 years ago. Today, walking is what you do to get from the living room to the garage in order to get in your car. Or what you do from the parking place close to the grocery store you spent 15 minutes circling around to find.

I have started walking to work. It takes me about 20 minutes one-way, up and down two reasonably sized hills. There are several reasons for starting this new activity. Here they are, not necessarily in order of importance:

1. In preparation for leaving the country in 4 months, we are a one car family. If I drive to work, than that would leave Keeley and the girls without a vehicle.

2. I could stand to lose some weight. Having tried the sitting around like a lazy bum method without success, I am going to try to be more physically active.

3. Preparing for Costa Rica. In Costa Rica we are going to walking ALOT more than we do here. Most likely we will be living close enough to the Language School that we can walk to and from there each weekday. I don't want to be doggin it when we get there and have to walk each day. I remember reading about Hudson Taylor as he prepared to leave to minister in China. While still living in England he began eating much less and slept on the floor to prepare himself for the conditions he would encounter in China. Praise the Lord for beds in Costa Rica!

4. Time to meditate and pray. If I drive to work, it takes me about 3 minutes if I get reds at the two stop lights in between. If they are green lights, the trip is even faster. Hard to do any meditating or praying in that short span of time. Walking for 20 minutes however gives me some good time to spend talking with God. Great preparation for a day at the office. Sometimes I even sing or hum quietly (but only when there are no cars driving by, I don't want to look like I am crazy....).

My wife has been to Kenya, Africa several times and told stories of people there walking for hours just to get to a church service that would last less time than it took for them to walk there. Our culture is really spoiled in that sense. Just costs us some gas to get there.

Anyway, the walking is good for me is several ways. I am determined to stick with it.

Swimming with the Fishes

My wife Keeley and oldest daughter Avigail had some excitement yesterday. They were having a Mom's Group activity at one of the prettiest parks in Kansas City, Loose Park. There is a nice lake complete with ducks and turtles, my girls love it. Yesterday Avigail got a little too close to the edge of the lake, lost her balance, and fell in to some water about 4 1/2 feet deep. Since she is not yet 4 feet tall this presents some obvious problems other than just getting wet.

Fortunately, Keeley was right there and heard the splash. Unable to reach her from the side, Keeley jumped in and got her. Although wet, cold, and smelly, everyone was fine (Keeley's cell phone is another story....).

After the incident and all the way home, my daughter repeatedly thanked Keeley for saving her life and told her that she loved her. Keeley and I were discussing the incident last night and she brought up how as Christians we are so grateful for Jesus saving our lives at the time we receive Christ, but then as time passes we stop telling him how thankful we are. The trauma of falling into the lake and then being rescued by mom will fade into my daughters memory. She will stop thanking Keeley for saving her life. That's just how it works. This is human nature isn't it?

When it comes to God pulling me out of the lake of my sin and its consequences, I don't ever want to stop telling Him, "Thank you Father".

(This picture is the lake at Loose Park, I don't know who this lady is.)

What day is this?

I am T-I-R-E-D, tired.  At my job, we are working on a project that has required more man power than usual, so some of the desk jockeys like me have been putting in some manual labor time.

 

The construction site where we are working requires that all work be performed between the hours of 6:00 am and 2:30 pm.  I like the getting off of work at 2:30 part, but the getting up at 4:00 am to be at my office at 5:15 to then be at the jobsite by 6:00 is killing me!  I suppose I would get used to it if this were to become my normal routine, but for now my body is in shock and rebellion.

 

So my soft, keyboard operating hands are now chapped and scraped up from doing real man work.  :-)

 

This too shall pass.  The project will come to an end.  I will end up back at my desk once again thinking that the grass is greener on the side of the fence where guys get to move more and be active in their jobs.

 

If you see me this next week and my eyes look a little more glazed than normal, now you know that it is caused by a cocktail of sleep deprevation and honest hard work.  What doesn't kill you makes you better right?