Moments

  God seemed like He lived across the country but now He seems to live next door.  I love the closeness.  But I know that  a large part of the vivid nature of the closeness is because of the former distance.  This is good - very, very good. So, good in fact that I don't seem to be able or have to pray like I used to.  The relationship is ongoing.  It is present in the moment.  I guess this the "praying without ceasing," talked about in the Bible. I had a good run in the rain and I was getting closer  but the difficulty I had with a nonbeliever ( previous post) took coming closer to high resolution.  The distance between here and heaven has closed as well.  Heaven is just a few steps next door.  It feels so liberating.  I am so grateful for the small pinch of heaven I've been blessed with to carry me through the tough times that will surely come before I move next door. 

  The other day someone started trying to tell me that, even though he knew I was religious and all that the heaven and hell and God thing was just a bunch of bull to make us feel better. I listened for a few moments.  He has expressed this before but never stayed on it so long, and finally, I did what I should have done all along, long before this.  I defended my faith. I expressed my surety of salvation, and my trust in God as Lord of my life and giver of life.   I told him he was wrong. He told me I was wrong. We departed company.  I  wondered if I could have witnessed better in a manner a little less challenging?  Perhaps, but at the same time though, any remaining doldrums of faith received a shock charge to increased vitality, as I firmly expressed my faith.   I closed any distance to God in a moment.  Sometimes I wonder if sometimes confrontation, even persecution is a tool to enable our faith to come out from hiding from the world and from ourselves.  Perhaps we need to know an

Over the years, running has always had a spiritual aspect to it.  And, some of the most memorable runs were in less than desirable conditions.  I still remember the run my son and I had on a country road when a storm of sorts came in.  It wasn't lightning too bad but the wind was blowing fiercely and the rain was pouring down.  A driver just happened to come by and asked if we needed a ride.  It was very nice of him since we were soaking wet and would have gotten the interior of his vehicle wet.   But we were having fun; a strange kind of exhilaration that difficult situations can induce.  We thanked the man extensively, and with a small smile and shaking of his head, he rolled up his window and drove on.   I've had other great runs in the rain, but none lately.  The elder years find me more tame than I like to see myself.   However, like so many others my age, I seem to find a way to keep passion and risk at bay by doing the same things the same way.  But not today.  Rain and