I love taking walks. With Ben in the stroller, we’ll walk to the library in Shirlington where we’ll spend anywhere from ten minutes to an hour (all depending on Ben’s mood). This usually is a daily occurrence. I find much peace and delight in my strolls, and it’s also during these strolls when I do a lot of my praying. At the library, most often I’ll read the newspaper, but occasionally I’ll pull a book off the shelf and read snippets of it. Especially when reading the newspaper, it can really put my own personal life into perspective. For example, I read an article a short while ago about a heat wave rolling through India with temperatures reaching over 120 degrees! Scores of deaths resulted from this heat wave since very few in India have adequate cooling systems in their homes. There was a picture of an Indian man taking cover from the sun in a small bit of shade. It made me realize how blessed I truly am. As I’m writing this, I’m sitting on my comfortable couch, with the AC on. I had a wonderful meal for dinner, I have two wonderful boys asleep in their room, and my beautiful wife right next to me. Who am I to complain? Praise be to God!
Summer is a time for me to regain perspective focus, and my way of accomplishing this is by walks and by prayers. I’m also working my way through several books currently. One of those books is The Boys of Summer by Roger Kahn – a book about a young writer and his journey with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Another book I’m reading, Tender Warrior, is about how men are to live and lead in a Christ-like way. This book has had a profound impact on me. Along with these, I’m reading: Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring by Tolkien; and Anatomy of an Explosion – a very unique book about the history of the LCMS.
As I come across certain excerpts from a book that I find valuable in some way, I’ll write them down on a small piece of paper that I keep in my pocket. Here are several that I’ve written down lately: “No game is as verbal as baseball … Baseball spreads 20 minutes of action across three hours of a day” (Boys of Summer); “When a man makes a promise, he creates an island of certainty in a heaving ocean of uncertainty” (Tender Warrior); “Blind human sight leads not to Jerusalem but to Babylon” (Anatomy of an Explosion). So where do I find leisure – in my walks, in prayer, and in reading. It’s in these activities that I find peace and delight in the Lord.