Pastoral Thought--July 28

It has been too hot to run with Luna recently. But today we finally got out together. She was overjoyed as I put on my hat, double tied my shoes laces, and went to the closet to fetch her harness. Up and down the steps she went, crying/whining in anticipation. It was finally happening!!! As I snapped the harness around her at the door, she hopped out the door and trotted as far as the leash would allow (which is about 12 feet). I selected the workout I wanted to use on my iPhone for the morning and pressed play. Peloton trainer Andy Speer’s voice came on, as did some music, and off we went trotting down the parking lot and getting ready to run to Forest Edge.

Now normally, I use a black set of earbuds when I run. The cord on those headphones is soooo long that it almost comes down to my knee—which is not safe when running. This fact presents me with choices. Do I tuck it into my shirt? Or I wind the excess cord around my iPhone. Neither is the great option but they work. Today, I thought, “Hmmm, let’s try the AirPods again.” My wireless Apple earbuds are great but I worry that they may fall out of my ear while running. And with Luna, pulling me around the street in excitement, that is not a good mix. I would probably end up sitting in the street if that happened with a mixture of embarrassment and resignation on my face and Luna wanting to run some more. But back to my day. . . 

Andy’s voice came through loud and clear in my right ear as we started warming up, but the left one. . . nothing. Silence. I ‘fiddled’ around with the left one. I tapped it. . . No change. . . Discontent. . . Reconnect. . .  Re-sync. . . . nope. I offered a silent prayer that this would work so I could run. Didn’t help. Silence in my left ear only. I thought, “okay,  this is going to be weird.” But I was 2 minutes into a run and wasn’t turning back (or more likely, Luna wasn’t willing to turn back). I hope it would fix itself. 30 minutes later and still only the right one worked. It never fixed itself. 

I wonder you have had that same experience in your day?     

The balance of what should be happening, what you should hear, how life progresses, is off and it throws the whole thing out of equilibrium for you. Expectation and reality do not mix in those places well. We have had a lot of chances to reflect on what is happening “out there” as a church. But today, as I did yesterday, I wonder if that unbalance is an opportunity to find joy in a new way? I wonder if God is waiting.  

I could not hear the trainer’s voice clearly today. The music was quieter. But it allowed me to hear traffic clearer—which is a good thing when you run with a puppy. I could monitor my own breathing better and try to calm my breath a bit. The guy who sits on his front porch some morning and I had a conversation about what he did before he was retired (he judged livestock and poultry. So he felt Luna was a beautiful dog, in his opinion. Which I would agree with). I wished a lady and her friend a good morning as they walked, and I heard he say back to me “have a nice day”—something I have not heard recently but assumed she was saying. Two girls were running and asked if they could pet Luna—I said yes. Wouldn’t have heard that if the left one was working. Maybe the lowered-volume of my day was a way for God to break in and give me the chance to see my neighbors differently and to be joyful because of them? 

C.S. Lewis said that “Joy has indeed one characteristic . . . the fact that anyone who has experienced it will want it again.” I find myself wondering if tomorrow I should hope my left earbud does not work so that I can experience joy, as I did today, in a consistent way. . . I wonder, can you find the places in your day when God is attempting to break through, with joy, to bless you?   

Blessings

Rev. Derek