The Little Things

While this post has no direct connection with tandem cycling, it does fall under the category of “Life”; sooner or later, as reflected in my postings at All Poetry, pretty much everything has to do with life.

In his book The Road Less Traveled, M. Scott Peck asserts that there are some people who constantly find unexplained good things happening to them, whether lesser or larger, while others are constantly plagued by bad ones, neither of which can be explained either scientifically or psychologically–that is to say, while it could be so, these people weren’t simply being optimistic or pessimistic–the events in question were guided by a force outside of and beyond them. To those who understand that God is constantly acting in His own ways in our lives and in the world, this comes as no surprise. What purpose He has, though, is often beyond our human understanding.

But few would question that little things can often make a big difference. Have you ever left something behind at the store? This is especially annoying at the supermarket, where multiple checkouts and long lines exert subtle as well as not-so-subtle pressure on us.

I had not fallen victim to this shortcoming in a long time, but a few days ago, having placed a bottle of fairly expensive multiple vitamins in my shopping basket along with a dozen or so other items, I arrived at home to find it missing. It did nothing to improve my mood at the time, and the discovery that my register receipt was also missing did not help. The bottle was not in my car, and it was nowhere to be found in the house. Over the next 48 hours, I visited the same store twice, and was on the point of asking if a bottle of vitamin tablets had been discovered in a checkout lane, but the lack of a receipt deterred me. When I thought of it, I felt unhappy, but pushed it out of my mind as much as possible. In the gracious providence of our Lord, seven dollars does not make or break a life, although I was raised to think that it might come close.

On the third day, arising to face a difficult and uncertain schedule, I reached into the bottom bin of my refrigerator for some yogurt. I was astonished to discover the missing vitamins. My frame of mind improved immediately, and what had promised to be a difficult day turned out much better than expected.

It is my joy to observe that we serve a God whose eye is on the sparrow, and who even counts the hairs of our heads (Matthew 10:29, 30). But God was not content with that. We are of more worth than many sparrows (verse 31)–worth so much that He sent his one and only Son into the world, to be born in a manger, to experience all of our disappointments and sorrows, big and little, and to carry away all our sins on His cross.

“Get up on a high mountain, Zion, to tell the good news! Call with a loud voice, Jerusalem, to tell the good news! Raise your voice without fear; tell the cities of Judah: ‘Here is your God!'”
-Isaiah 40:9 (AAT)

“The glory of the Lord is risen upon you.”
-Isaiah 60:1 (KJV)

Continuing Place

Hebrews 13:14 is the source of the tagline–“seeking a continuing place.” In the most-often used English translation of the German text of the Brahms Requiem (taken from Martin Luther’s translation of the Bible), the words go like this: “Here on earth have we no continuing place; howbeit we seek one to come.” I first lifted this verse out and applied it to my life one night when I was smack in the middle of my days of driving buses for Suburban Lines. I wrote to a friend about how I was returning on a charter trip and was “pushing the big 4905 through the midnight darkness along the banks of the Ohio River, seeking a continuing place.” To me, a continuing place is a place where you can stay, or, to put it another way, home. For Christians, our home is ultimately heaven, but along the way we tend to try to find other places where we can feel comfortable and safe. This can be good so long as it doesn’t come to dominate our lives, because we are really just pilgrims–travelers here on earth.

I think I like to travel because each time the destination becomes home–a place where everything is going to be all right, or even more intensely, like heaven. This can lead to some strange contradictions, as when I take the train to Chicago and it feels like heaven when I get there. Chicago is not known for being like heaven! But when you arrive in a beautiful train station and walk along the Chicago River near the Loop or vault to the top of the Sears Tower in an elevator, it can seem like heaven for awhile. Of course, for me, there are stronger connections–I started my career in bus driving with the Chicago Transit Authority. Much later I graduated from a college in the western suburbs of Chicago–Concordia River Forest (now known, to my consternation, as Concordia Chicago).

But I’m departing from the focus of this blog. The header above pictures a journey; the house could be home, or it could be on the way. It’s a lovely setting–green woods surrounding a white house with a shady side porch. Not visible in the picture is Lock 72 itself, a massive stone structure. The gates at the ends have fallen into decay, and the lock is filled with vegetation instead of water. It must have been lovely in the days when canal boats plied the waterway. I could picture myself staying here for an extended period of time, soaking in the ambiance and perhaps writing a novel.

In point of fact for Mileposters, this house is just a waystation on the path to Washington, DC, or, more pointedly, Berwyn Heights, Maryland, where our gracious destination host and hostess reside. To most people’s minds, their dwelling, with its four split levels, short staircases tumbling from one to the next, would seem more like heaven than the humble white building along the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal. The public areas of Washington, DC are also very beautiful. If you’re looking for heaven on earth, it’s at least some kind of example. Take your pick of whether our nation’s capital or the Murky Swamp is better or worse!

Whatever picture we use of our journey and its destination, one of our tasks as Christians is to stay focused on going the right way and not getting sidetracked. In the over 300 miles between Pittsburgh and Columbia, there are plenty of opportunities for that.

What connections are there in your life which help you to understand your journey to heaven? What encourages you to keep on going? I’m sure that there are as many examples as there are people reading this.

Mileposters News 12-08

This will be a monthly feature telling about the ordinary sorts of things which Mileposters do. Other posts will be more philosophical–this is mostly just reporting.

Five Mileposters riders (two who rode all the way from Pittsburgh to Washington, DC, two other veterans, and one newer rider) went Christmas caroling in the community around St. Thomas Lutheran Church, in the Woods Run neighborhood of Pittsburgh, PA, on December 14, visiting over three times as many places as last year. Besides going to the homes of St. Thomas families, the carolers sang at the Woods Run fire station and at the homes of kids who were being invited to Games Night, which was held that evening. A special treat was homemade peanut butter fudge at the last stop, which was at the Arensberg home. A trip to McDonald’s in Bellevue, complete with session in the play area, refueled the riders for the rest of the day’s activities.

One new family from the rounds of caroling did come to Games Night, bringing attendance to eleven children and five adults. It was the third straight session with new people attending. Even some of the grownups enjoyed participation in a riotous game of duck-duck-goose, which was led by Aleata Weis, who also brought freshly-baked gingerbread men. A generous supply of other treats was available, provided by Roy and Eileen Arensberg. Kent and Jennifer Nelson continued their able assistance, especially for the always-anticipated round of hide-and-seek at the end. Other games included Carrom, bowling, chess, and checkers. The education director at St. Thomas, Mark Shields, risked playing against two people at once-–one in chess and one in checkers, but lost the chess game! Every Games Night begins with a study of that Sunday’s Gospel lesson and ends with joined hands in a circle, praying the Lord’s Prayer. The Mileposters are continuing to sing special music in Sunday worship at St. Thomas, and sang in the Christmas Eve service as well.

Besides crosses, Mileposters now have Christian fish, embossed with the Greek letters which spell “FISH” in that language–-an acrostic for “Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Savior”–-to distribute to others. Over fifty passengers on area school buses are receiving Christian fish keychains for Christmas. As with the crosses, custom cards have been created to explain the message of the Christian fish, with information about the Mileposters and St. Thomas on the back. You may browse mileposters.net to see lots of pictures of Games Night, Christmas caroling, and other Mileposters activities. A number of Mileposters riders and their families attended a special community Thanksgiving meal on Troy Hill, and a November trip was made to ride behind a steam engine on the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad from Cumberland to Frostburg, with a visit to the carriage museum in Frostburg. A special feature of the train ride was costumed World War II re-enactors.

On Your Mark, Get Set…

First things first! I’m ‘mileposter’ because I started a bicycle club a little over ten years ago. The trail where we started, and still do more rides than anywhere else, features massive triangular concrete posts every mile, with numbers. We would stop at every milepost to regroup, riding solo bikes. Now we use tandems, triplets, and quadruplets, and usually go about five miles between stops. But the name stuck.

The blog header picture is of the lockmaster’s house at Lock 72 on the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal. The bike is the triplet which I built on a frame from Chuck’s Bikes in California. It has been from Pittsburgh to Washington, DC three times and on numerous shorter trips.

The tagline is from Hebrews 13:14. I’m still fine-tuning things, so please bear with me. When everything is sorted out, I’ll turn my attention to more interesting matters!