Walking

Ever since I was a kid I loved to walk. I wonder if it's partially because it took me until I was 18 months old to figure out how (late for a baby, Rachel was walking at 10). Seriously though, I've always liked walking. There's the beauty of things around you, the ability to get yourself lost but find your way back easily (in a car getting lost may mean a mile's worth of driving, lost walking means cutting through someone’s yard).

There's also the solitude. For someone who was as shy as I was, solitude was a wonderful gift. When you walk alone you're there with just yourself and God (and my dog in tonight's case). When you walk with a friend you're not alone, but it is one of the few times in this life where people aren't all around you and possibly eavesdropping, it's really just the two of you in your own world.

I realized one other thing tonight about myself while walking. I always try to be the best at whatever I work on. Notice I didn’t say try to do the best, I really want to research and do the job the best way possible. It's good in some ways, making me stretch to fulfill peoples' needs. But it can also lead to some issues. I often see other people doing a better job than me and instead of learning from them I try and figure out what I can do to be better. Recently that even turned into me talking down about someone doing better than me, finding flaws in their method. Well, everything has flaws (especially myself), but that doesn't mean I should point them out.

I've sometimes wondered why I like walking more than other things, like gardening, playing games, running or biking. I think it's really because with all those other things I would compare myself to someone else (and possibly find myself wanting). So then I'd have to make a better garden or bike harder, or just do my best. With walking there's no competition, I can go at my own pace and enjoy what's around me.

During the mission trip I spent all of my energy building people up. I did very little joking about people's faults (I wish I'd done none) and really focused on the gifts and great things each person did. There was no feeling like they did better than I did, and I learned a few things (such as the YouthWorks Club time is a good model for our youth group).

Each night I went to bed smiling, happy and reliving some of the day. I thought about the great things people did around me and the great feeling I got from being able to share those times. Times like when our crew offered to stay late and finish staining a woman's deck, almost missing dinner (and after 4 exhausting days). The time I sat on the fence in Montana with three or four youth group guys and talked about relationships while sharing silences as we watched a storm 60 miles away. The time I was able to tell each youth leader on the mission trip what an incredible difference they made in my life and the life of the kids (and the warming feeling when they told me about the good job I did). Or the foot washing service where I was paid a couple of the best compliments I'd ever heard, one person asking why I wasn't there 10 years ago for their kids, or the youth who came right toward me for a hug and to share some kind words and the moment. Times like these literally move me to tears (just ask anyone in our church group circle :) ).

I went to bed happy. There are times in life I go to bed so worried about tomorrow, or what I did wrong today. When you spend your day building people up and noticing what a gift they are, you can head off to dream land with some incredible thoughts. They lead to happy dreams and a great start to the next day.

My point is simply this. We should always do the best we possibly can at any given task. God led us to that task and we should honor His request by doing it as well as he knows we can. At the same time we need to notice the great things those around us do. Even if you barely know someone, if you see them go out of their way for you (or someone else) a quick word or short e-mail is enough to make their day and your own. So I simply ask this, when you're with other people, can you acknowledge one thing someone did well? Can you let them know?

Peace,
+Tom

posted by Tom at 8:43 PM