yvalker (Melbourne2Mapoon): 1.Getting back to Charters Towers & the walk..

Tuesday 6 August 2024

1.Getting back to Charters Towers & the walk..

[Choose day (6Aug)]

Car (with beautiful woman. Kat.), Bus, Train, Bus, Plane, Plane, Car (with helpful man. Baz.), Motel (in Townsville)..

Still doing the last two in a set of daily readings/ reflections with a daughter who said “Dad, I saw your upside-down map of Australia, on your back-pack,

and it drew my attention to this set of daily readings” - on “upside-down” mindsets for doing life on planet Earth.

Today’s reading/reflection was about “peacemakers”, & prompted (in my first bus and train), this further reflection on peace-making, in light of two neighbours at home in Orange, who are each trying to make the other’s life a living hell, in order for the other one to have to sell up and move. Both are determined to not be the one who lets the other win.

I draw a 3 min portrait-picture of a lady who “gets onto” (=lights) the bus just after me. She agrees it does look a bit like a relative. (My very special gift, of drawing people’s distant relatives). I get to read & listen & reflect (see reflection on peace-making link above). We alight (= get off) the bus at the Bathurst Railway Station, and I realise that I do have to use my Opal card. Glad I had it ready in case.

I am in the toilet when the train stops, so don’t see where it comes from, and think it is going the opposite way, and then I’m in a hurry not to miss it when I jump on, so I don't count how many railway carriages there are, nor which one I’m in. So I happily talk on the phone to a mate, and an aunty - in a quiet carriage! How glad I am when a lady tells me.

A friend’s blessing to me got me thinking of meaningful encounters, and friendliness, and blessing - wishing and acting to bring good to others, to bring a smile rather than a frown - you can’t always do this; but do it where you can. It led me on some research and reflecting in the plane, & the lounge waiting… Thanks Bev, and others too.

2 comments:

BevR6 August 2024 at 19:58
Interesting reflection on power and self-aggrandisement Paul. If we are to be peacemakers we are called to lay down our power ... or even give our power over to the other person. That is the "it sticks in my craw" edge for me, at least!
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BevR6 August 2024 at 20:07
And here's some more to reflect on by Gary Jansen from the Loyola Press 3 minute retreat for 05082024: "Maybe Jesus felt so alone, so isolated, so ignored by the world that his loud cry fell on the one set of ears who was listening. Maybe God through Jesus was telling us that our behavior and the way we treat others has left him feeling alone, isolated, and ignored. Jesus’ cry then isn't just a personal cry of how much pain he was suffering but a cosmic cry for the pain and suffering we level against each other. "
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miss ta walker?

The good that Jesus Christ called “God”

through hell & high water,

is walking, and has always trod

with his people, they’re his daughter.

It’s like there are two kinds of folk

who live throughout the Earth

- and I don’t mean the “sheila” / “bloke”

dichotomy, for what it’s worth –

I mean the kind who’re “open up”

to what they were made for:

it doesn’t matter: tiny bub,

or a hundred in the shade, for

they’re like God’s kids, his child-er-en,

his own daughter or son,

whether new-born, or two, or ten,

he loves them (and he’ll discipline

-not in that harsh, embittered way-

but still enough to learn

the worth of all they do or say;

they learn respect, and they won’t “turn-

-on ya”, and then just be diff’rent,)

they get God’s character!

They’re “open up” to love and when’t

causes pain, they still barrack ta

see it win. They have confidence

and know the mys-stur-y

of love that is it’s one defence,

won’t throw it out for just what’s seen!

These folk come in shapes and sizes,

cultures - all seem diff’rent,

but the thing that each one prizes:

's what eternity’s culture’s meant!

It means that power and glory are

by God owned, and on loan,

instead of them being "The STAR”,

they want God’s light of love more shown!

The others have already died,

some grieving has been done;

but plans of God are now being tried

to raise them up, each one.

Mean-while God’s still brooding, weaving,

walking throughout his world.

“Looks” have often been deceiving,

half (his grieving) has not been told!

Jesus told us his secret plan:

to hide within the weak,

the smallest, slowest, of human-

-ity’s face, is from where he’d peak.

We’re used to looking up to ’mpress

not down to beneath us;

so he who’s real, to real-ly bless

uses this ruse to bequeath us

his blessed image growing up

within our hearts & minds

and beings, that by showing up

will rule his world in ways divine.

I want to give more airplay to

the stories of these ones

who let God look on this world through

the eyes of his daughters and sons.

I want to walk just as he walks

I want to see as he,

to listen as he does (and talks),

let his story be told in me!

And to this goal I know I’ll slow

-ly keep on moving too;

a walker only, but I’ll go

on day-by-day walking with you.

Not only with self-discipline,

but with your true coaching,

one day, I’ll be the kind of man

that can handle man’s reproaching,

or human praise, and not become

sep-ar-a-ted from you,

and your care, in that christened ONE,

who walked the dusty streets then too.

Please now again, as long ago,

come walking in some skin

and bones, and let me see, please show

your world to me from eyes within.

Mentioning Models/ Motivations

Below is a reason, model or motivation (or two) for my walking. Some are contradictory, but may still never-the-less be achieved on a given walk; e.g. times of solitude, time connecting deeply with others may both be achieved on a walk with breaks in it & with options like establishing a daily rhythm of silence for the first hour on the trail of each day.

. The sound of the LORD God going for a walk in the cool of the evening. (on hearing which, Adam & Eve after their disobedience, instead of joyously joining in, went & hid. This was a sign of their real, previous, death. They were now in reality "The Walking Dead")

. Adam & Eve sent out of the Garden Paradise, to the East, to till the soil from which they had been made; & the son of Adam (Cain) being sent as a “wanderer East of Eden”. (cf Nerida’s sheepdog story) . Enoch, about a 7th descendant of Adam, even after the great disobedience, the death of humanity, who “walked with God for 300 yrs.” . Terah & his son Abram, are wandering Arameans given a command by God, to go somewhere in particular - along the lines of their current desires/dreams, though not in line with slumping into doing nothing. This response to God’s command turned their wandering into purposive action; it meant Abe was travelling until God told him to stop. Then Abram travelled down to Egypt & back, (to escape a drought), & was then told by God to walk through-out the land, to see where his descendants would be inheriting, “because I am going to give it all to you”. God seems to be into inheritances, gifts that you will pass on to others, where you can rejoice in someone-else’s delight. . Jacob, walks off hundreds of km. to run from his brother's vengeance, to his old relatives & safety, with nothing but a walking stick, & returns >7 years later with a whole family. . The “Exodus”- the WAY out of slavery in Egypt, & into being a free people under God in their own land. Normally a trip that took less than 2 weeks, but for them took 40 yrs, while they waited for everyone (almost; with 2 exceptions) to die, before the new Nation entered it’s promised land. . Immediately after their exit from Egypt, this people were to walk for three days into the desert to worship the Creator Spirit there. It was here that Moses was then told to walk up a mountain that was to all appearances undergoing a volcanic eruption, where he stayed for over a month, receiving the insight of the Ten Words as part of the Stipulations of a Covenant the Creator Spirit was making with this people. But “to whom much is given, much will be required”. Alongside awesome blessings for keeping their part of this Covenant, the people agreed to (about 9) awful curses if they did not. . Jesus saying to the 12 "Come & follow me", then through all the towns of Galilee heralding the announcement of the Emperor's coming near. . Jesus sending his 12, then the 70 (or 72), out in pairs, to cover all the towns where he was about to go (with no provisions). . The 12 disciples' trip to Galilee (after the resurrection), to meet up with Jesus, & get their new marching orders. . Jesus sending the 120 (10x12?) out accross the earth (into all the world) to make disciples of Jesus as God's Christ + Phillip with the Ethiopian Official.

The Israelites were not the only people to be given a land by the Creator Spirit, but (a remnant of) their oral & written histories have probably been best kept. The blueprint for the bones of an ideal society given to this fledgling nation involved whole communities travelling every year, the length & breadth of their country (admittedly smaller than Tazzy) to a central Temple to (not fake-worship & fake-serve another human peer, but to) truly-worship the great King who actually made all the land (as well as the sea, sky & stars in the wondrous universe given humanity). They walked as pilgrims, singing psalms of ascent, camping overnight, continuing on in the mornings until they arrived (admittedly nowhere was more than a few hundred kilometres from “the Temple in Zion”). This same people, within half a millenium of entering the land, were all walking barefootedly from Israel & their beautiful Temple, as captives & slaves (once again) to Exile in Babylon. The prophets of the Creator Spirit had warned them about reaping what they sowed, about God not being mocked & about his hatred of hypocritical “worship bands”, and these covenant reinforcement mediators invoked the covenental “curses” on this rebellious & headstrong adolescent nation. [though often with a strange edge of future hope for a remnant, who would be faithful] About a hundred years after the Exile of the Israelites of the Southern Israelite kingdom (Judah), the current ruling Emperor, Cyrus the Persian, & the next Emperor(s), in a bid to keep good with “The God of Heaven”, send a delegation of these people (from a few of the 12 tribes which together had made up the Israelite nation in it’s heyday under King David & his son Solomon) back to Jerusalem in their homeland, & to the work of rebuilding the city’s protective wall & it’s Temple. This journey is in hopeful “fear & trepidation”. Yeshua, as a baby, is carried to Egypt (& back) by his parents, to escape from the Emperor's representative in that area: "King Herod". Jesus travels back to Jerusalem's temple after the 40 days in the desert. Jesus being filled with the Spirit at his baptism & then sent out into the desert for 40 days [without food (& water?)] Jerusalem Jews (under Saul of Tarsus, after Steven's Stoning) travelling through the Empire. Franciscan Monks Celtic Monks Pilgrims in Spain

yvalker (Melbourne2Mapoon)

Tuesday 6 August 2024

1.Getting back to Charters Towers & the walk..

2 comments:

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