Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Discipline and Disciple II

So.

With little or no positive feedback, I was thinking maybe this was just vanity talking, and more or less composted the marathon idea. But the idea wouldn't go away. It kept hanging with me; sometimes I'd dream about it, other times I'd daydream about it... and I kept finding marathoning material I thought I'd tossed.

Finally, at Christmas time, I was really feeling stressed out and overwhelmed.(big shock, huh? stressed out and overwhelmed at Christmas time? whoda thunk it?) One day I paused, and said out loud to myself : "What is this?!? This is supposed to be a celebration of the Prince of PEACE!"

After recovering from the holidays, and still feeling overwhelmed, and like there was no other path, but endurance to get through the holiday season - it hit me. I should worship and celebrate Jesus -all the time- by walking in his footsteps. Somehow, when I had this thought, it also occurred to me that Jesus walked (or occasionally rode on a donkey) everywhere. This was an a-ha! moment. What if I walked a marathon? What if I walked, a meditative, prayerful marathon for peace? Now I was cooking with gas.

I soon decided, that 26.2 miles wasn't long enough. I needed serious time and space to let this experience transform me in whatever way I needed to grow. 26.2 miles would be a few weeks of flurried activity; I was being called to a prayer discipline. I settled on a 1000 mile journey, and a year's time. They seemed like round numbers, and it seemed like something I could do. I mean, many of the world's poor and vulnerable people walk six miles - or more - everyday to meet their most basic needs. I could certainly stand to walk about 3 miles a day for a year - in fact, I would actually benefit. To take it a step further, I felt I should try to replace some of my driving altogether, and introduce a bike into the mix.

It was finally at this point, that I didn't feel I needed permission, or outside validation to know what I was being called to do. In fact, my big motivation was to reach out and share the journey- not in a hyped-up mania kinda way- but in a "walk with me" kinda way. The only thing left then was to start walking.

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