WEIGHT

It's about weight when you are walking to Santiago; the weight you carry is the burden you choose to bear; the lesson on the body is the need to seek thankfulness for what God provides and leave the burdens of excess that bring harmful weight behind.  That is also a lesson from the end of training for Camino.  The last two days free from the pack that needed to be prepared for the flight to Spain eventually to begin in France the walks for training felt more like pleasant strolls that training. The mind was open to listen to the waking of the birds and other creatures and perhaps even an unknown whisper.  The first day after a rain there was a strange new sound of applause from the trees.  The leaves still wet with moisture released droplets of water as the breeze moved the leaves and the sound from one droplet to another as they hit the next leaf was like the applause of the tree to God for the refreshment of the rain.  May the day be one of refreshment in the presence of the one who sends the rain and invites us to walk free of the excess.

Peace,

JB

Process in the Present

Now training the necessary moves towards final stages; distances approaching what will be the course of the daily enterprise on Camino.  Thus 20k today July the 15th with the start about one month away and the departure to Spain about three weeks.  This continues with some let off as the start approaches in order to maintain fitness while giving the body and mind a chance to build up for the task at hand; to engage in another phase of the continuing process of life in the present; engage and live in the process.  As I was training the 20k today in heat that finished at 30 C the thought that came around was the importance of staying in the moment of the process or the present; neither looking back to what was nor being deluded into the illusion that there is a finish.  Each time we worry about the regrets of the past; or focus on the finish ahead thinking issues will be resolved we are deluded and miss the clarity of the present.  Stewardship of the precious present; gifted from God is after all the only reality that we in some sense control; ourselves and how we react in the present.  Training today then rather than focus on finishing 20k it was better to focus on the surroundings of the area where I walked; the sounds of a neighborhood waking for a new day at the end of the work week.  Early there is little outside the melody of the birds that changes as the sun rises higher in the sky.  Humanity then begins to come back to public life; fellow morning walkers appear; then vehicles; then sounds of lawn mowers.  All is interspersed with the sound and sight of squirrels running about. Internal sensitivity is also part of the present requiring awareness; the reactions of the body on this particular day to the new distances; to the differing heat and humidity; to the need to adjust the weight of the pack loaded for training within a pound of a full load on Camino.  With a sense of your own pacing and level of clarity the body tells you when to take on more water for the water lost through sweat.  The only reality over which we have some vision of control is the present.

I wonder then how living out the present faithfully to the principles we have come to call our personal ethic of conduct; not regretting or celebrating past nor dwelling on the glories or peril of the future that may come changes us.  Perhaps it changes how we participate in the continuous need for things like peace in society; equality and respect among people of all races and cultures.  There is no valid utopian vision of the future to be achieved; rather the need for each of us beginning with ourselves to stay in the process or processes that generate peace, equality; respect etc.  The teaching of Jesus does then not take us to a finish but rather becomes the tool of our stewardship of the precious present.

Just Bob

Training Reflection for July 5

Training the "Necessary" 

As one looks to the pilgrimage of El Camino de Santiago de Franco one source says training is helpful.  Leslie Gilmour suggests that though training is not absolutely needed one may enhance the experience beyond a lot of early pain by preparation; stands to reason.  Thus starting the day after retirement I added  physical training  to language training in preparation for what is to come.  The suggestion of the author was for twelve weeks of physical preparation; like most starting slowly and building.  Building in the heat of the South Carolina summer is no fun; but no training that I have experienced is ever fun; always simply necessary.  Physical training; walking significant distances prepares both the body and the mind; not just the body.  As you walk free of technology; meaning no head phones; you allow yourself to be open to contemplation.  Perhaps contemplation may be based upon devotional reading completed earlier; upon reflections on the sermon heard at the last sabbath; upon your own search for the true servant self that God has created in your life.  The prayer is that with both language and complete physical training the pilgrimage may yield the hope for which it is taken; always open to the possibility that God has surprises beyond what one may expect; in fact that may be the only certainty that in humility one may expect.  Training is necessary; no question; but not fun; also no question.

Just Bob

So Now What?

As this servant of the Christ enters an opportunity to re....tire the question arises for me as for all who come to this second or third phase of life: now what to serve God; what path does a steward of life given is now to be traveled? Forty days to be open to the one who is the source of life is the start for me and by this blog a process I would share with you; perhaps a way to serve while being open and trying to discern.  Now in training I begin the pilgrimage taken by many known as the Camino de Santiago de Frances starting out on August 22 from St. Jean Pied de Port. As wifi is able to be used each day my intent is to share thoughts; musings etc as well as pictures of the path.  You are invited to come with me through this blog.

Peace,

Just Bob

So Now What?

As this servant of the Christ enters an opportunity to re....tire the question arises for me as for all who come to this second or third phase of life: now what to serve God; what path does a steward of life given is now to be traveled? Forty days to be open to the one who is the source of life is the start for me and by this blog a process I would share with you; perhaps a way to serve while being open and trying to discern.  Now in training I begin the pilgrimage taken by many known as the Camino de Santiago de Frances starting out on August 22 from St. Jean Pied de Port. As wifi is able to be used each day my intent is to share thoughts; musings etc as well as pictures of the path.  You are invited to come with me through this blog.

Peace,

Just Bob

Rising From What?

"Wisconsin ELCA Congregation Rising from Painful Post-Assembly Conflict‏" is the title of the latest apology for the heresy of the decision to live outside of the norm of Scripture; the result of the CWA decisions last summer. The article put out by the news service of the ELCA attempts to be a story of conflict turned to renewal and renewal turned to a vision of an even stronger future. After reading the article one has to wonder who would be so naive as to find it encouraging; rather than tragic. All the conflict of the story arose when faithful disciples reacted as they will do when the truth of God is abdicated for the false views of the world. Granted the false view was endorsed by the ELCA at the CWA in words that from "Human Sexuality Gift and Trust"; but that does not change the error. It only brings into the question the continuing legitimacy of the ELCA as a valid expresssion of the Church catholic. Further granted that after some time some people who left the parish returned out of their love for community; but at the price of orthodoxy inflicted upon them by leaders who now stand in the judgement of Mark 9:42. Finally and left unsaid is, "What about those whose discipleship has been diminished or faith impaired who are now wandering without a shepherd because of this imposed heresy by the ELCA?" "What of the members who have been driven out permanently?" For now they have left a former expression of the Church and I pray they have again found a place; an expression of the Church where they may be fed in Word and Sacrament.

Until we reform the ELCA, so that this organization again is faithful to the "canonical Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as the inspired Word of God and the authoritative source and norm of its proclamation, faith, and life" it remains only that; a diminished religious organization.
By God's grace may the ELCA beginning with each congregation and then each synod reform and return to Scripture. Only then will Pastor Sowell's words ring true, ""I am sure St. John is not only going to survive, it's going to thrive." Only then will any congregation, synod or the wider church thrive as God intends; as a community that is the body of Christ; an expression of the Church.

Peace

Pb