A Goshen Winter Walk

I wrecked my car last week. It's my own stupid fault, I picked up my cell after getting a text and rear ended someone. The only thing you need to know for this post is that I don't currently have a car.

So I was painting a house for some new acquaintances today trying to piece together a bit of cash in this jobless desert called Elkhart County. I was in a hurry to hitch a ride with Wilbur this morning that I forgot to get breakfast, or bring a lunch. So about 10a.m. I realize this. First I try to call Papa Johns. Too expensive, they won't deliver under $10 orders. So the unthinkable happens... I have to walk. I walk fifteen minutes across downtown Goshen to Subway, then fifteen minutes back.

It was actually kind of nice. Things were pretty toasty around here today (38 degrees, arg). I saw a couple of people, they smiled and said hello. I got exercise. I didn't have to pay the money for gas. I didn't have to worry about rear ending someone. I felt like my little trip to Subway was actually worth something. Good exercise, fresh air, and I'm a little bit tougher for dealing with the cold.

I understand that there are inconveniences to not having a car, but I'm loving the limitations, the forced simplicity of choice. I did really want to go see my girlfriend a bit, she's not feeling well, but she went to bed early anyways. I just feel like the pace of life is so much more relaxed when you don't have the option to go anywhere you want whenever you want.

To leap accross the chasm to spiritual application, dying to self is hard. I have choices everywhere. I liked how Rich Mullin's put it "The stuff of earth competes for the allegience that I owe only to the giver of all good things." This whole not having a car thing is making life slow down for me. It's an adjustment, but I like it. Sometimes we have to up the concentration and find God through the distractions; but why can't we adjust the pace of life so we can hear Him better? I want to quit asking God to speak through the noise, THAT I'M MAKING, and slow down enough to hear Him, and not just on Sunday afternoons when the Colts are barely pulling out another W in the 4th.

"Evil looks like business." -Mike Yacconelli

Dad, thank you for the car wreck.