Back on the Path

A follow-up visit to the doctor last week revealed that my blood pressure had spiked! A feast at a Chinese buffet restaurant the day before may have contributed to that, as may have medication for my poison ivy reaction, but the number was high enough that it startled my new doctor and me both. He ordered some tests and I resolved to return to walking and running with fierce devotion. I enjoy walking and running, but I had allowed other worthwhile activities to crowd exercise out of my schedule. I marked about a route of just more than three miles and traversed it four times so far this week.Yesterday (two days after my poison ivy medicine ran out), I took my blood pressure and discovered a much, much healthier reading, but I have resolved to maintain the walking. Another thought that registered in my mind was how easily the good gets crowded out of our schedules and our minds. It's far too easy to find oneself engulfed in society's outrage over politics or celebrity behavior or climate change or what ever is the outrage of the week without submitting our minds to the disciplined guidance of God's Word and prayer. As I have returned to walking, I also have redoubled my attention to maintaining regular reading of the Bible and serious popular literature (the latter to help me keep attuned to reflection on what is going on around me). I feel some new aches and pains as muscles little-used in recent months are pressed back into service, but I also sens a revival of optimism and hope as I discipline myself and follow the light of god's Word and stay on track in my exercise regimen. The psalmist wrote, "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path"(Psalm 119:105). AS we stay on the path and follow the light, we find courage and comfort fur our souls.