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I
can’t claim to have a well thought out business
plan nor have I sat with politicians shaping the laws of
our nation. I haven’t invented anything and none
of my “staff” gets paid, let’s be honest
I’m not even close to approaching financial viability.
But I am successful. I am doing what I love and I love
what I’m doing and when I go to sleep at night,
I am at peace with myself and with my world.
I am a pastor by trade, but I like to view myself as a
fellow-traveler, a friend on the journey, a woman who loves
to walk with whomever crosses my path.
My
one claim to fame, and the reason I am often invited
to speak to
audiences around the country, is that a few
years back I walked across the United States; Pacific to
Atlantic, and not the short way either, I went corner to
corner, Seattle to Miami. It took me a little over a year,
a year and four days to be exact. (Don’t cheat me
out of those four, they were either the first four or the
last four and both were torture.) I went through 11 pairs
of shoes (New Balance are better than Nike in case you’re
curious).
Why
you ask would a 28-year old woman set out to walk across
America
by herself, right in the middle of some
of the most “profitable” working years of her
life? To find something even more profitable, a journey
worth traveling.
This 4,200-mile journey allowed me to focus on two primary
principles that I feel are essential to leaving an imprint
on this earth. The first principle is one that most of
us have a difficult time cultivating in our lives. This
principle is the art of Being. I had very little space
or margin in my life for God to do something new. And so,
for me the primary goal of the walk was to learn how to
make space for God and to find Him in the day to day steps
of my life.
The second focus of my journey across America was the
commitment to walk with whomever God placed in my path.
When people on the road asked me why I was walking, I would
share my belief that Jesus never set up shop in the temple
and asked people to make an appointment. He walked into
their lives. I figure if I claim to be a follower of Jesus
I had better learn how to walk like he walked. And indeed
after 4200 miles I do believe that walking the way Jesus
walked is the only way to go.
The journey continues to remind me that:
- You see more of life when you get out of the fast lane
and try on a 4 m.p.h. pace.
- I am
just as loved by God when I am in the middle of a field
doing “nothing” as when I follow
the productivity standards of this world.
- It
may be the most productive decision of a twenty-mile
day to stop and talk to the person at mile-post three.
- With
every mountain top there is a valley and that there is
a whole lot of South Dakota in most of our
lives.
- Simplicity
makes me a nicer and far more generous person.
- Discipline
is important and that I need to get up and “walk my twenty miles” no matter how
many blisters I have on my feet.
- And
most importantly the journey taught me that you can’t get to Miami overnight…that is, unless
you fly…and then you miss out on the purpose of the
trip…being a fellow-traveler, being human with other
humans, and actually living rather than just getting by.
Are you looking for a way to get off the insanity of the
interstate and find an easier pace?
Would you like your life to leave an imprint after you
leave?
Are you interested in a God who travels with you every
step of the way?
I’d
love to share with you some lessons for the journey.
In these excerpts from my journal, I have changed the
names of the people involved.
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