Seeds on Wheels—reflections on a Sunday morning. One of the pleasures of social media is having friends who run, and reading about their runs when they take someone else who is just beginning. It’s heartwarming to see friends’s intentionally sharing time out of their life with others to lift them up, helping another find new strength. It gives them courage to face life with new strength. I was that person earlier this summer—I like trail running now because on my first run, the elite runner intentionally ran the trail at my newbie pace rather than his. Someone ran with a purpose other than their personal pursuit, and that made all the difference. So I have a challenge for my running/walker/bike riding friends, but first I want to tell you about these pics. The first pic is a bag of sunflower seeds balanced on the aero-bar of my bicycle, the other pic is of my buddy Marvin. The seeds are going to fill Marvin’s bird feeders. Let me tell you about Marvin. We met Marvin while delivering groceries to shut-in people in our community. Marvin was neither relative nor acquaintance. We just sort of picked him. We love Marvin. Although Marvin lives with advanced cancer and is almost non-ambulatory, when I call him on the phone to ask how he is doing, his response is always “I’m GREAT!” He emphasizes ‘great’ with inflection reminiscent of Tony the Tiger from the famous cereal commercials. Marvin’s spirit in the face of adversity lifts me—he’s the definition of trooper. The majority of Marvin’s life is spent in the chair pictured—while upright by day, it serves as his study, resting place, dining table and work bench; reclined, it is his bed by night. From his chair, the only view of the outside is through a small window, and just outside that window are his bird feeders. Marvin and I share many interests, and when I found he loves to watch wild birds flock to his feeders, but couldn’t go outside to fill them, the solution was easy: I volunteered for the job. I fill our feeders, why not fill his too? When the birds flit and hop around those feeders, I suppose for a few moments, his spirit too lifts above the bleak reality of his world behind the window. So why am I telling you this? Like many of you, I enjoy the time I spend walking, swimming, running, and riding my bike. Especially riding—if fact, the longer the ride, the better. But, with more activities, and longer distances, it means more time is required in those pursuits—generally time by myself. But after that first trail run, when I realized someone ‘sacrificed’ their run that morning for me, when they could have run at their own pace, it got me thinking. I wanted to feel like when I pursued my rides, that I gave time with a greater purpose than just ‘getting in more miles.’ So I made an easy change to my routine. This summer, after that trail run, I decided to set a goal that when I was able to ride my bike, my rides would start with a 5 mile jaunt to Marvin’s care center. Sometimes to stop in and visit, or just ride by and check on his feeders, or take seeds to refill--‘seeds on wheels.’ Usually seeds go in a backpack, but today I just put them on the handle bars. Call me crazy, but it somehow gave my rides a purpose that felt even better than before. And it was easy. Now my riding/running/walking friends know that these activities we enjoy—even if done by ourselves—are not selfish pursuits—it keeps us healthy for our families, which is vital. For my wife, running is also prayer time. And for all of us, something about getting your heart pumping brings peace to combat the insanity of daily life—our lives are spent in an exhausting pursuit to feed kids, make a home, provide shelter—and getting some quiet time to run magically recharges our batteries. This is all good. So when I was riding the 5 miles to Marvin’s before I got in 25, I got to thinking, what if all my friends started intentionally making a ride or run into a ‘run for good/ride for good?’ Taking a few steps in an act of service, a way of giving back. And I realized many of you already do. You say ‘I will run with you, walk with you, you set the pace.’ When I considered if I worked some type of service into all my running/walking/swimming activities, the possibilities became endless. What if I simply picked up a piece of trash and disposed of it on every walk? That would help. The dock area at the lake always needs tidying up. It only takes a minute, I am down there anyhow, what if i take a trash sack with my towel? What if charted my long-run course to pass by a care center to say Hi to someone on a long run? It will only take a minute and I can make that a water refill point. So, my challenge is this: consider ways to make your run a ‘run for good.’ Run for good, ride for good, walk for the good of someone else—even someone you will never know. Like I said, the possibilities are endless. Use a run now and then to slow your pace and encourage someone else who needs that nudge; take a trimmer once in a while and make the trail better; pick up the plastic bottle from the sidewalk for the next person—it is easy stuff, it takes almost no effort. Probably no one will never know you did it and that doesn’t matter (President Reagan once said “it is amazing what we can get done when no one worries about who gets the credit”—it’s true.) Or plan your course to visit a lonely person along your way, whose riding days are over and days in general are numbered (all of our day’s our numbered, by the way, some are just more obvious than others). And find that when you visit him, he doesn’t care you’re in bike shoes and spandex, dripping with sweat. His life simply lights up to know his bedside became your destination. When Jesus said ‘take my yoke upon you,’ it came with the assurance that his tasks would be easy. Doing things for others--this is the easy stuff.
Posted on: Sun, 31 Aug 2014 16:09:53 +0000
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