Walking Mornings

It takes determination to get out of bed on a walking morning. Every other day of the week is not so difficult, but always, a walking morning struggles with me.

Perhaps it is a mind game, but life feels weightier on those mornings. I am setting about to do some work in that walking, and the burden of my neighborhood thunders down on my belly.  A murmur at my ear says, "Just sleep today, maybe tomorrow will be more fitting." As I reject that idea, another advances,  "You are wasting your time with this useless activity. You have a lot of other things to do today."

How true that feels, but I know better than to trust my feelings. Feelings often defy the truth.  They are fickle, inconsistent friends. This walking feels so unfruitful, but then, we are about unseen work, aren't we? This walking is for rough places made smooth and the crooked made straight. We are not struggling against flesh and blood, root and earth. We are about eternal business on these walks.

I tie up the laces and close the door behind me.

Where do we go today? Turn right at the corner, walk down this street.

What do I see this time around?

This neighborhood is so foreign, but I need it to become home. Home worth fighting for. These residents are a mystery, but I hope they become MY neighbors and I wish to neighbor them. These walks are transforming my eyes to see rightly.

What do you want me to lift into your hands today?

Look down. Liquor bottles, cheap and little, litter my path. Perhaps forty or fifty along the sidewalk in this two mile walk. Ah Lord, the addiction runs so deep and for so many generations. The claws go in so far... throw this mountain into the sea. Please save these families, restore the soul. Help them to fight back.

And what of those barren yards, more weed and dirt than grass? Who is neglected in that home? Lord, love them, come to them, show me how to love them well.

See those ramps for the aged and infirm? See the aging of this neighborhood? Please, Father, bring healing and joy to the shut-in. Help me to learn them, walk alongside them.

What of these flowers and trees and manicured lawns? Praise you, Father, for people who have interest in making beauty. Encourage them to be light in this community. Help them to have kind and humble hearts.

Will you lift up these churches? Come, Lord Jesus, be in our presence. Be high and lifted up in these places. Move mountains through your people.

See how graffiti smears these fences, the tokens of gang and violence? Please, please bring your peace here. Help the disenfranchised. Remove the drugs. Light a desire for a future, for a different life, for freedom.

Notice these schools? Please Lord, provide for these children. Help them to grow. Give them nurturing teachers and parents. Protect them from harm. Keep them safe. Teach them truth. Help them to know their value.

Hear those angered voices? Please, Father, destroy the violence in the home. Remove hearts of stone and make flesh. Provide for the finances, bring work to this community.

See the skin tones, tan and chocolate next to your white? Lord, the festering scar of racism runs deep and wide. Please heal the wounds of this community. Justified resentments drip from a glance. Bring forgiveness, Lord. Make me an instrument of your peace.

See your neighbors? I will make a way for you. I will show you how to love, and help you step into what you do not understand and cannot control. I will take you beyond yourself and you will see my glory in this place. You will see my goodness in the land of the living. I answer prayer.

Lord, bless my people.

And then I walk up to my front stoop, and close the door on another walking morning.