OK, you probably think I weenied out on my challenge to walk 500,000 steps by Labor Day. I can see why…after all, it’s September 20 and you haven’t heard a peep out of me since July 10. The truth is, I made my goal early! Since starting my new position the end of July, I began walking an average of 12,000 steps a day. So, yeah, I completed my goal during Grand Haven’s Coast Guard festival in August.
This journey not only drew me closer to God but caused me to go through two pedometers. The first fell to the ground and kind of went crazy afterwards. The second was a cheap one and only tracked about 600 steps over a whole weekend of walking. I decided to wear the third one on a chain to keep it from falling off my waistband like the first one; I guess I should have invested in a better chain since the one I purchased kept burning my neck. Needless to say, I was glad to get the 500,000 steps in so that I could stop tracking!
Coast Guard – now that the weather’s turning a little colder, it seems like forever ago. In my travels that week, I learned:
1) An elephant ear combined with a caramel apple does, in fact, make a complete meal.
2) Bagpipers practice for the parade, days before the event, not only with their pipes but with their skirts. (Is that what they call them?!?)
3) Adults on bikes do all they can to stay off the pine planking on the board walk; they like to be as unobtrusive as possible. Kids, on the other hand, love to pedal down the pine planking; the tires make their own noise, enhanced by a simple song: “Ahh……” in varying tones and crescendos.
4) Communication is in the eyes.
Communication is in the eyes…I stopped to watch the Coast Guard’s Silent Drill Team. A dozen or so Coast Guard troops participated in a rifle drill show. Eventually all stood on the sideline at attention while a squad continued, the drill master at the center. Everything was so proper, so sober, so precise, so dignified. I fought with tears; it made me so proud of my country, of our men and women who spend each day defending our freedom.
As I dabbed my eyes, one dropped his rifle. Everything stopped. The one who dropped it never flinched. He never took his eye off his drill master. He just dropped his hands to his side and waited.
Slowly one soldier left the sideline and stood behind the soldier with no rifle. He placed his own rifle in that soldier’s hands. He picked up the fallen rifle before making his way back. Not until he was in place again did the squad resume their drill.
This illustration immediately gave me insight into the Lord. Revelation 3 in the NIV reads, in part:
1 “To the angel of the church in Sardis write:
These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. 2 Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God. 3 Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.
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