walking on a leash

On my morning walk at Radnor Lake, I encountered a young woman who was trying to walk a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel on a leash. I emphasize the word "trying" because the woman was heading up the hill while the puppy was attempting to travel in the opposite direction. When the woman saw me watching her struggle, she explained with a smile, "We're still trying to learn how to walk on a leash."

As I watched the dog straining to distance himself from his master, a stanza from Robert Robinson's classic hymn "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" popped into my mind:

"O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above."

Like the spaniel, I'm still learning how to walk on a leash. Like the spaniel, I am prone to wander. Like the spaniel, I need to be bound to my Master.

close encounter

This morning I nearly collided with a white-tailed deer. What made this close encounter with a female Odocoileus virginianus unusual was the fact that this near miss occurred not in my vehicle but on foot. I was almost at the end of my two-mile, very brisk walk along Otter Creek Road at Radnor Lake when I was startled by a sudden movement just a few feet ahead of me. Nice job of camouflage, deer. The doe eyed me warily but - surprisingly - did not immediately dart away. After I apologized aloud for disturbing her while she was grazing for her breakfast, we amicably parted ways.

This near miss was clearly my fault - I was preoccupied as I prayerfully pondered how to proceed regarding a pressing problem. (Ahh, alliteration.) Ironically, I had been thinking about Proverbs 3:5-6 - "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths." Clearly, I could benefit from a little more (make that a lot more) directional help from above, lest I bowl over one of God's creatures in my haste to find my way along life's paths.

find the good and praise it

"What we see usually depends on what we look for." That is the message that is posted on the sign in front of the Presbyterian church around the corner from my house. I read the sign with its freshly posted message as I was driving home from my morning walk at Radnor Lake, and for the second time in an hour my thoughts turned to Alex Haley.

I was fortunate to have Alex Haley as my commencement speaker when I graduated from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville in the spring of 1985, and I was doubly blessed when I was able to eat lunch with him after the graduation ceremony. Because my father had been serving as an ex-officio trustee for the university, we were among a select group of people who were invited to attend a luncheon at which Mr. Haley was the guest of honor. (As I recall, university officials informed Mr. Haley that they were giving him a pair of geese in appreciation for his commencement address. Fortunately, they did not actually present him with the geese at the luncheon.) My father and I were assigned to sit at the same table as Mr. Haley. I would like to be able to pass on some wise words that this consummate storyteller imparted during that luncheon, but I don't remember him saying much at all. That's because my father spent most of the meal telling Mr. Haley stories. 

I thought about Alex Haley the first time this morning as I was walking down Otter Creek Road along the shore of Radnor Lake and reflecting on Philippians 4:8 - "Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things." Because I am a detail-oriented person, I tend to focus on what's wrong in a given situation. I want to things to be done right, and done right the first time. If a mistake is made, I want it to be fixed without delay. This preoccupation with finding what's wrong to make things right means I tend to dwell on the negatives, so I have to discipline myself to look for the positives - the things that are true, and noble and right. 

Which leads me to Alex Haley. Mr. Haley's personal motto was "find the good and praise it." Wise advice. Biblical advice. Convicting advice. 

Radnor Lake

"As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?" (Psalm 42:1-2) 

These are the words that sprang to my mind this morning as I walked along the shore of Radnor Lake and spotted a doe and her fawn drinking from an adjacent pond. Radnor Lake is one of Tennessee's state natural areas, a 1,200-acre jewel of a park located just eight miles from downtown Nashville. I began walking regularly at Radnor Lake when Chaney started high school, since John Overton High School is located just a couple of miles from the park's east parking lot and it was very convenient for me to drop him off at school and then head out for my morning hike. Visitors to Radnor Lake can walk on Otter Creek Road along the southern shore of the 85-acre lake or venture out onto one of the four major trails: Lake, South Lake, South Cove, and Ganier Ridge.

One year I kept a small journal in my car in which I recorded the variety of wildlife I spotted each day during my hike, including: whitetailed deer, barred owls, river otters, snakes, beavers, rabbits, frogs, muskrats, Canada geese, great blue herons, red-tailed hawks, and a variety of ducks. As I recall, on one winter day I spotted 70+ whitetailed deer, a personal best. My son claims that there are really only ten deer in the park which continually hightail it through the woods and position themselves so that I will spot (and count) them over and over again. He clearly grew weary that year of my daily animal spotting reports.

Hiking at Radnor Lake is good for my body, mind, and soul. This is a sacred place for me, a place where I go to meet God. This park is a sanctuary where I admire the Creator's handiwork and consider my place in His creation. This is also a place of prayer for me. I have uttered countless prayers during the past few years as I have traversed these trails - including regular prayers for the high school students I teach at church. When this morning's sighting of the doe and her fawn brought the psalmist's words to mind, I prayed that these high school seniors would have a thirst for the living God, an unquenchable desire to know God more intimately. And that is my prayer for myself, as well.