The El Rio Pathway provides me with a lot of thinking time. Lately, I’ve been spending a decent amount of time on it. It takes me a good while to walk the 12 miles or so from my house to its northern end where it has crossed Congress twice.

I have labelled different parts of my walk. There’s the hospital segment by Boca Regional. Then there’s the FAU segment (which I want to share a thought about), and then the intersection of the Tri-Rail station, I-95 and Yamato, all of which are bypassed by the Pathway. And then there’s the stretch to Costco (you never pass up Costco), and finally the Big Bend.

For the last couple of weeks, before we had these rains, the canal that gives El Rio its name started slowing down. Usually, a nice flow of water cascades over a little dam along the FAU segment of the walk (think 4^th Avenue and about NW 17^th Street). But as I walked from day to day, the cascade became a trickle, then just a trickle on one side, until last week when the flow had stopped altogether.

That made for a calmness reminiscent more of a pool than a river. I smiled at the tranquility; I think peaceful waters soothe us as humans. But it told me that drought season had started visiting us. And indeed, we had fires out west that first week when I noticed this. I started wondering what tranquil waters meant. Calmness is one thing, stagnation is another. Drought even more. What do March and April have in store for us? Is this exposed little dam a sign? And what does this drought-induced pond say spiritually? I’d run out of philosophical inquiry by Spanish River Boulevard.

On the way back, at that complex intersection where you go under the train tracks, I-95 and Yamato, you actually walk on a section of the path that is below the water level of the canal. It would have been great if they had built the retaining wall out of glass so that you could see the fish go by (or iguanas more likely). In this section of the walk, the wind had picked up a little, and the flow of the ripples on the water flowed up stream. The water was moving in the wrong direction! Suddenly I engaged the philosophical inquiry again. (This inquiry quickly ended at Spanish River again, just coming southbound this time).

The tranquil waters, or shall we call them stagnant waters, were now flowing in the wrong direction, subject to the whim of the wind. Instead of going nowhere, the water was going backwards. And you know that it could not really flow backwards, at least not for long. Sans the power of the water flow, the pooled water just moved back and forth at the whim of the wind.

I think this happens to us. If we don’t follow in the flow of God’s grace and His will, if we lose the power of the Holy Spirit moving us forward, we trickle down to stillness like the little pool down by FAU. And while it can look tranquil, it leads to stagnation and even to going in the wrong direction. Remember what Dr. Livingston said? “I don’t mind moving as long as it’s forward.”  If we stop moving forward, we have started the process of moving backwards. That is not God’s plan for us. That simply is not the best for us–we are made to move forward. Physically that’s true, even if our goals change, and it’s also true spiritually. Job 17:9 says it succinctly: “The righteous keep moving forward, and those with clean hands become stronger and stronger.”  It’s important to keep this axiom before us, regardless of our age, our health, our status, anything. The righteous keep moving forward.

This week the rain has started the flow again in the canal. Praise God!

Putting my walking shoes on,

Craig

 “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?

I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”  Isaiah 43:18-19

I like to start out the day reading what is called on the internet the “verse of the day.” Usually, I go to the

homonymous website, but occasionally, usually because it seemed repetitive from the previous days, I will seek

alternative ones. And last Tuesday that happened, and I ended up in Leviticus 19. If you want to read some interesting old laws, read Leviticus 19! Occasionally in the news you read about some archaic State law that some legislator is trying to change. This is a list from, I don’t know, 3500 years ago? We don’t need to change them, but they are old!

Much of Leviticus 19 sounds like an amplification of the Ten Commandments. Verse 14, for example, reads: ”Do not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block in front of the blind, but fear your God. I am the Lord.” That is a logical

sequitur to loving your neighbor, but I think even today we disobey that law as a society. As I read law after law, a lot made sense there in Moses’ words.

But some laws are not as immediately evident as others. There is a triad in verse 19 for instance. The triad says:

“Do not mate different kinds of animals.

“Do not plant your field with two kinds of seed.

“Do not wear clothing woven of two kinds of material.”

Now, you could respond to that by saying “what, do we kill all the mules? Can I clear my closet of polyester on religious grounds?” And I would smile at that, granted. What’s wrong with synthetics anyway?

Personally, I think not mating different animals was a way of God saying, “leave the animals alone.” A good word. And not mixing two kinds of seeds makes for weird harvesting. And weaving two kinds of materials? Simplicity and elegance are best served by a single material. That’s just my opinion.

But taken as a triad, I think it’s a call to focus on “the main thing.” The verse actually starts with the words “Keep my decrees.” I think God wants us to focus on Him and stay focused there. Me? I weave faith and fear together, I weave trust in the Lord with self‑reliance, I weave worship with distraction, and devotion with compromise. I weave God’s will, what I know His word says, with my will and selfish desires. I could go on.

Jesus put it more eloquently: “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other,

or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” (Matthew 6:24).

Jesus’ call to make sure we have one master serves as an invitation to live a focused life, a “purpose driven life” as Rick Warren put it years ago. The hymn’s suggestion that we “turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face” is so that “the things of earth will grow strangely dim.” Focus helps clarity. All the fusion and blending of this world cannot match the simple goodness of following Jesus. We need not mix anything else in.

Wearing wool socks today,

Craig

You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.

Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the Lord himself, is the Rock eternal. Isaiah 26:3,4