Mathew 8: Demons, Pigs, A Steep Cliff

 

The Counterintuitive Nature of the Gospel: Mathew 8, Casting Out Demons

Why did Jesus tell the demons they could enter the pigs? That’s always made me think. The demons, speaking through the two men, recognized the Son of God coming toward them and pleaded with Him. I get that demons need a host, but why does he grant the request and kill the pigs? Nothing about the life of Jesus is an accident. With another person I might think they acted rashly, but with Jesus there is always another reason. Jews are forbidden from eating pigs because pigs don’t chew their cud (Deuteronomy 14:10). Swine aren’t a source for food so they’re probably kept to clean up food scraps and till up soil. 

A lot of this probably comes down to culture. I find that often with the scripture. An incomplete picture of an event is due to differences in culture. So many of the parables are inversions of time tested stories the Hebrews would have been familiar with. The famous prodigal son parable was an inversion of a moral fable told by rabbis to keep kids in line. In their version, the father comes to meet his prodigal son along the road and harangues him about poor choices. I think he even slaps him. I might be getting parts of it wrong, but the point is that the son is rejected for his reckless lifestyle and familial disrespect. The version we know from the gospels shows the father full of grace. We associate with either the prodigal or the older brother.

Both are representations of human behavior. In either case, the central problem is pride. The prodigal’s pride is in thinking this carnal life is fulfilling. He lives hard and comes crawling back, a regretful and humbled man. The older brother’s pride is in himself and his deeds. He believes he is better because he never left the house and dishonored his father. In the end though it’s the younger brother that’s in a better place. His lack of pretense saved his soul. The father always welcomes us back with open arms. For most of us, older or younger, we fail to recognize that our position has nothing to do with our efforts. It’s truly by grace that we find salvation.

Is there a similar comparison here to the demon and pig story? It’s not a parable but I do wonder if there is some glaring omission in my mind. I’m only writing like this because I don’t currently have internet access. I would normally just google a bit and find it out. But I like this too. It’s almost a throwback to a time when we didn’t have instant access. It’s an unadulterated snapshot of what’s going on in my mind at the moment. I’ll look it up eventually but for now, my ignorance stands.

There is a similar account from Luke where one man is demon possessed instead of two. The man’s name is Legion. At least that’s what the demons inside him replied when Jesus asked his name. They also begged not to be sent into the abyss. But this story is very familiar to the one in Matthew. About the only difference is that there’s one possessed man described in Luke, and two possessed men described in Matthew. Otherwise, it’s in the same region of Israel and the death of the pigs is described the same way. Is this a different story? In both cases the people from the area asked Jesus to leave because of their fear.

That strikes me as odd. They were OK with demon the demon possessed naked man running around breaking chains and threatening people, but deliverance from said torture is just too much? I wonder if this is one of those things where they were somehow benefiting from the freak show near the tombs. Like the men making money (in Ephesus I think) from the fortune telling girl who Paul delivered. Could this have been part of their commerce or attraction for the city?

Possibly they feared the religious elders (Pharisees, Sadducees) who harassed Jesus at every turn. I imagine them sending spies to the region to inquire about the dead pigs. Maybe it’s just the simplest explanation of all, that they were afraid of this power they’d never encountered before. In a matter of minutes, the Messiah freed a long time oppressed man and killed a swath of pigs. That discomfort with the unknown can make people queasy. It’s almost like the Western’s I watched as a kid. A stranger comes into town and runs out the local goons. In the process he upsets the establishment and ignores etiquette. Come to think of it, that’s a fantastic summary of the life of Christ. He’s not a gunslinger but a righteous judge on a ‘mission from God’. For all the counterintuitive logic in the gospel, if the goodness of his ministry wasn’t self-evident it proves that a lot of people are truly lost.  

That’s what’s on my mind today.

 

Big Mess Big Cleanup: Tulsa's June Storm 2023

Digging Out of a Storm with Friends and Family

Tulsa just experienced a serious summer storm about two weeks ago. By “serious” I mean 90 mile per hour wind gusts reeking havoc in much of the city. The angry wind took out telephone poles, trees and wooden fences across the metro. Close areas like Broken Arrow were also hit, but the damage was less severe. I finally got my power back almost a full week later. Lineman from all over the country were called on to assist with the rebuild. A quick survey of the wreckage told me it would take a while to get back to normal.

The worst storms always happen without warning, at least that’s my experience. The weather showed a storm moving into the area but I don’t remember thinking it would be a seek shelter kind of night. My preference is always to have storms while I’m sleeping. Saturday night delivered. The window in my bedroom fell out on to my feet (it didn’t break) when a strong gust pushed it open. I has cleaned it recently and I guess I didn’t close it properly. My quickly awakened mind was a little confused as to what the hard substance was on top of my feet. Groggily I got out of bed and closed it back in place, locking it properly this time.

The carnage around me was unmistakable as I looked out the window at the broken limbs strewn around the yard. My neighbor’s massive tree had split near the top. The branches were hanging down into my yard. The fan quit spinning, alerting me to the lack of power in the house. I walked to the living room to get a better glimpse at my front yard. It was worse than in the back, limbs, leaves and random trash from neighbors who’d had their fences blown over formed a coalition of the broken in my yard. The good news was that my Santé Fe was unharmed. Thank God for that. Heavy limbs surrounded my driveway on both sides but my car was untouched.

I couldn’t see the roof but nothing was sticking through and I hadn’t heard a loud crack. In addition, my garage in the rear of the house was also untouched. I knew it would be a big cleanup the next day but relief filled my head at the lack of serious damage. I went back to sleep expecting to get to work Sunday morning. It happened to be Father’s Day but golf would have to wait for a more suitable climate. Fortunately, my dad offered to come in help me cleanup and bring Joyce (my stepmom). My mom texted me to find out about the damage and also, offered to help. She took me to Lowes and I got a $200 chainsaw. Even Lowes was running on a generator. Dimmed lights and frantic customers in the store signaled a catastrophic city wide event.

It was tough to find out how extensive the storm was across the city. Obviously my part of town was a disaster. We couldn’t access the main roads nearby. Either the lights were out because of the power or fallen trees had made large swathes inaccessible. This would be the case for midtown Tulsa until at least Thursday the following week. Some have generators but gas because a premium item because a lot of stations didn’t have power. The ones that did, ran out quicker. It wasn’t just because of generators but the number of cars lining up for available fuel. The additional number of utility trucks in the area put an additional strain on gas as well.

Nearly all of my neighbors had limbs down. Sunday morning turned into a mandatory clean up day. If you drove down the street at 10:00 a.m. you would see homeowners’ hauling tree branches to the curb. You would hear revving chainsaws ripping into fresh limbs. You might smell the sawdust piling up in neat rows in the wet grass. All my neighbors got the memo and promptly headed for the street. The church up the road even sent its Sunday morning parishioners down the road to give us a hand. That was truly a wonderful gesture, and seriously needed. My elderly neighbors needed it the most. They had a tree hit the corner of their house. I helped them for a few minutes while my parents were working in my yard. I left my chainsaw with one of the church members to use on the tree trunk. He got through most of it before the chain slipped off.

Disasters like this bring out the best in people. There is something about seeing a neighbor in need that makes you want to act. We all coalesce around a common goal, for a time, and finish the task at hand. For me, I had family members willing to come leave their homes and spend a few hours getting sweaty and risking accident. That might not seem like much, but a lot of people don’t even have that. It’s true that theft increases when homes are unoccupied, it increases the amount of lawlessness in general. But the help I see from strangers overwhelms the criminal element. I’m a blessed man.

Now back to work.

America's Safety Obsession

 

Toughen Up America: The Future Depends on It

I was watching a college baseball game on TV, when I heard the commentators talking about tough minded players. They saw the Oral Roberts Baseball team as being scrappy and competitive. Kids who take risks, like drinking from a garden hose, make good baseball players. The thinking was they don’t need much in life, tough kids just show up and play. I agree, but is drinking from a hose considered risky…really? That made me think about some of the other ways our lifestyle/culture is risk averse compared to say 50 years ago. 

From bike helmets for recreational riders to hand sanitizer in every building, we’ve turned safety into a cult and it's having deleterious effects on our culture.

When everything is dangerous, nothing is. 

Fear of Lawsuits

Covid showed us how malleable a society of supposedly rugged individuals can become. Too many of us couldn’t leave the house without a bottle of Purell and an industrial size box of N95s.   

The NFL has changed more in the last 15 years than any other time in history.

The league was sued by former players in 2014 over misdiagnoses and lost. That’s roughly when the head injury protocols came in. Initially I thought Roger Goodell was earnestly creating a better game. But after the ‘can’t hit the quarterback’ penalties and subjective targeting calls, I went the other way. There is only one thing you need to know about companies that get sued, they have money. In the NFL’s case, a lot of money. Anyone making windfall profits will get sued at some point. Don't focus too much on the details of case. No one sues the poor.

 I don’t mean there was nothing to the lawsuits. But the culture was different and the league wasn’t as scientific or professional. It wasn’t that organized and salaries weren’t stratospheric. New businesses are always freewheeling. It’s the established ones that start protecting everything.

This is where the league is today, afraid of lawsuits, social justice warriors and a woke mind virus that’s destroying everything.

I’m not going to make a case that today’s athletes are babies (not even close) but they are used to a catered existence. I’m glad the NFL has cracked down on the dirty late. It’s a profit machine and allowing defensive players to body slam your QB is potentially expensive. I get it. But all of this tweaking of the rules changes the sport to an unrecognizable degree. There is a good chance we won’t have kickoffs in the future either. Why? Too dangerous. Most injuries happen during kickoffs, can’t risk it.

Fear of Disease 

Like the NFL, businesses got very risk averse during covid. Every company over a certain size probably got the same lecture from their legal team over the possibility of lawsuits in 2020. It’s a shame that so many companies are slaves to lawsuits. They’re cautious to a fault and it has a multiplier effect on everything else in society. Grocery stores didn’t let you return food, retailers didn’t let you try on clothes. All of these arbitrary rules were implemented because of a disease that was essentially a nasty flu strain. Even if a lot of that was just business taking advantage of an opportunity, it was ridiculous. Tulsa passed masks ordinances, likely with the approval of the Chamber of Commerce. If local businesses didn’t want a mandate, there is no way the Chamber would support it.

Oklahoma was one of the saner places during the pandemic too. Some states didn’t allow the kids to go back to school until late into 2021. Kids who get the virus as often as Halley’s Comet is visible from earth, were kept from their peers. The “lucky” ones came back and wore masks like doctors prepping for surgery. More than a safety fetish, this was either outsized fear or opportunism. Sadly, a lot of people really snapped. I talked to a Fed Ex driver who couldn’t even walk packages up to certain doors. The home owners would come out with masks and insist he set down the parcel on the driveway and leave. The opportunists were the teachers’ unions. They used their collective muscle to keep teachers from classrooms, knowing the risks were basically zero.

I’m not the first person to make this claim but it’s clear to me that kids are overprotected to their own detriment. Playgrounds are significantly safer than they used to be. From  rubber flooring and safety slides to restrictive swings, it all has an effect. It probably seems heartless to long for the days of more risky playground equipment just to keep the kids in line. But that’s not exactly right. Like the NFL’s new risk averse rule book, kids see a sanitized version of everything and don’t learn how to exercise right amount of caution. When every play area, living room, jungle gym and school are covered in foam children become reckless. A healthy sense of caution is imperative to function in the world, that’s especially true for children.

Conclusion

Covid exposed our own sense of risk avoidance, and we let the authorities do whatever they wanted. Shut down schools "no problem". Close down businesses "sure thing". Keep people in separate rows at church and the grocery store "just tell me where to stand". Allow city councils to impose masks in public "if it saves one life!" I can’t draw a straight line from safety measures to a totalitarian state, but the connection is clear. First comes suggestive guidelines, followed by health scares. At some point we get mandates and penalties.

 The safety obsession is making us soft and dependent, two characteristics Americans have never been.

I’m not sure how to fix it, but we have to get the money out of the lawsuit business. Why do pirates rob merchant ships? That’s where the loot is. As for parenting I’m a little out of my depth not having any kids of my own. But the good news is kids are naturally resilient. It’s the parents that need to ease up. Maybe don’t wash their hands thirty times a day and prevent them from drinking from the garden hose.

I hope we’ve learned to depend on each other for help and not the authorities. We won’t survive another pandemic with the same freedoms we have now. Buck up a little America. The future depends on it.

Adjusting With Age: Less Is More

 

Begin A Good Thing

I didn’t run this weekend. It’s been raining since very early and the gym I go to is replacing the flooring in the treadmill section. I’m not against treadmills but it’s really painful to go more than 6 miles on a treadmill. Not painful but boring, so boring. Next week I’m sure they’ll have the gym put back together. It hasn’t rained in quite a while on a Saturday morning because I nearly always go. I used to be far less committed to running but that was years ago. I took off about 1 week every month, either because of the weather or because I wanted to sleep in. These days I realize the importance of exercise in general and running in particular.

Better Habits

I had a doctor’s appointment yesterday to have a prescription refilled. I hadn’t been to the doctor since before Covid and I’d lost my refill options. Fortunately, the visit was short and sweet. I got in early and left early. Fridays are slow. I’m in good shape because of my dedication to running and eating better. Notice I said “better” and not good. I’ve started paying attention to the foods I eat. Yes, I still eat plenty of foods heavy in saturated fat and salt and sugar. The cupboard shelves still groan under the weight of snack foods. But the way forward for me has been less is more. Cut down on the overall calories instead of trying to reimagine my diet from the ground up. It’s more likely to stick anyway. Good habits are tough; tougher without the incremental approach.

One or my first conscious choices was to stop buying pop at the grocery store when I got my first apartment. While in college, a few of us split rent on a dumpy 4 room walk up. I had to use the little money I had for food. Soda became a luxury I could do without. Yes, the decision was financial and didn’t have squat to do with health. But I noticed a significant drop in weight, also energy. I never went back to consuming as much pop. I’d learned my lesson. Water first, everything else second.

Since then I’ve been forced into other adjustments in diet and exercise.

Much of the increased discipline comes from getting older and not having the same choices. When I fill up from dinner it’s tough to sleep through the night. If I eat anything after 7:00 pm it has to be light, popcorn or fruit. About 10 years ago I went to the doctor with an excruciating case of acid reflux. During those years, I was working late and cleaning the milk coolers at Quick Trip. On the way home I’d grab a couple of their spicy Taquitos for the road. Those are deep fried heart stoppers of greasy goodness that warm up on gas station rollers. The food worked me over like an MMA fighter, and forced some serious lifestyle changes. But not eating heavy food late wasn’t a dramatic change. It was just a small step necessary to move on. My body made the decision for me. 

I cut out eating ice cream every night a few summers ago. I’ll still buy it on occasion but packing in 1000 calories just before bedtime had to go, like keg parties and McDonald’s breakfast. I’ve never cut something out of my life all at once. I’m disciplined to a point, but like chopping wood I need to take a few whacks at the log before breaking it in two. The one thing I always had going for me was my dedication to hitting the gym 4 to 5 times per week. The foundation necessary for getting in shape was already established, it just needed some tweaks.

Better Fitness

 In the early days (college, Army) that meant lifting weights and putting on muscle. I always mixed in running, rowing and spinning. But gaining muscle was my goal. That changed close to a decade ago. I started running all year long (even the winter) in addition to the gym visits. I guess my idea of fitness changed. Suddenly big muscles didn’t seem all that important. Concern for heart rate, cholesterol and blood pressure scores overtook my enthusiasm for strength.

I don’t remember how the mental shift happened exactly, but I knew I needed to up my cardio training. I’ve increased my distances and training ever since. One year I had some issues with planter fasciitis and another time I struggled with hamstring pulls. But I’ve always come back to running. Just yesterday, the doctor told me my blood pressure was amazing. That felt good. It’s also confirmation that my efforts aren’t in vain. The healthy choices I’ve made over the last 10 years map perfectly with my spiritual growth. It turns out, maturity isn’t just learning to take care of your body as you age. God is with us in the process and He's patient. Oh is He patient!

Conclusion

When God gets our attention, He breaks us down until there is nothing left but our dependence on Him. Then He ‘restores our soul’ and leads us in steps. Whatever vision exists for our lives is completely in His hands. We trust it too. He’s shown us a better way and given us a heart of gratitude.

“Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus”. (Philippians 1:6)

 

Golf Belongs to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

 

Monahan Wants a Mulligan 

It was a slow Monday at work or I wouldn’t have noticed the headline scrolling across the bottom of the TV screen. It said something about a golf merger. The guy being interviewed was the ever present Jay Monahan, the PGA Commissioner. I put the Golf Channel on at work because it’s easy to ignore. ESPN isn’t quite as good for background. They have too many yelling, excitable anchors who treat their own opinions like preachers treat the gospel. My first thought was, this can’t be true, not after the way the PGA treated players who left their league.

Monahan himself is on record questioning player loyalty. "I would ask any player who has left or any player who would consider leaving, 'Have you ever had to apologize for being a member of the PGA Tour?'" The implication here is that since the Saudi’s own the LIV tour it’s tantamount to playing for terrorists. Actually this whole, the-Saudi’s-don’t-respect-human-rights, PR campaign has been in full swing since the split. The PGA and its players have leaned into it. It was the case when the US government started selling them military equipment. It was true when global oil companies did business with the kingdom. Formula One held a race in Jeddah in March. Global horse races, art shows and martial arts exhibitions all go there.

This new deal doesn’t mean the kingdom is suddenly cosmopolitan and liberal however. But it always felt like a reactionary barb, meant to put a mark on those players who decided to leave. It looks downright silly now. Calling someone a criminal isn’t the same as calling them greedy. We assume the greedy person can become generous, or at the very least pragmatic. But when you call someone a criminal, multiple times and in multiple ways, where can you go? The PGA just shamelessly turned around and said, “nah brah, it’s cool”. That underlines their original position entirely and makes them look ridiculous.

I have no idea how decisions are made in any sport. But dumping on the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF) and their country’s problem of abuses was a negotiating technique by PGA officials to keep as many players at home as possible. If they only lost some of the older stars like (Mickelson, Garcia and Poulter) they could weather the storm. The PGA was desperate to keep its brand intact but ultimately lost the gamble. Was this the plan all along, to merge leagues so that everyone makes more money? Both leagues probably decided it made more sense to end the war in the courts. Most of these court cases will drag on for years and end up hurting the bottom line of both.

My sympathies are with the golfers PGA loyalists, Rory and Morikawa and Scheffler. They resisted the millions offered to leave and now they look like suckers. Their good deeds and loyalty were held cheaply by a backstabbing tour. It left them in the fox hole while negotiating a settlement during the firefight. Staying with the PGA, also meant these players had some kind of future promises of a better financial arrangement. The PGA was setting up larger purses, more tournaments and chances to earn money. It’s hard to imagine a more duplicitous public act. Monahan should resign, at least then it would appear that the anti-Saudi wing of the PGA lost the argument.

We don’t know the details of the new arrangement yet. So far it’s just a press release. But the wealthy PIF is the biggest investor in the new merger. It’s also going to bring in the DP World Tour which is Europe’s primary league. Basically that means the Saudis own golf now. Global golf belongs to the Kingdom of Saud. Amazing.

I prefer the old days where America dominated everything in entertainment and sports. It wasn’t that long ago was it? But too many people think of the United States as spreading democracy to the rest of the world. It isn’t. It doesn’t. It won’t. If the last 8 to 10 years hasn’t made you realize how actually corrupt our government and businesses are then you aren’t paying attention. That probably seems like moral relativism but it’s really just an acceptance of the way things are. I don’t excuse any country for its history or its present, but I’m also not in the mood to lecture after what’s become of our own institutions.

At first I bought the story the PGA was selling, the historic tour doing it’s damnedest to keep the sacred game unsoiled from the barbarian horde. But I also figured a little competition would be good for golf. Some of the changes in the LIV game were interesting at least, 54 holes and team play. Both tours came to Tulsa in the last two years. Not bad for a midsize city. But now it looks like all the grand posturing from the PGA was a big joke. Should I be surprised?  

 

 

Ephesians 1: Recognizing the Promise

 Maturity for the Inheritance in Christ

The first chapter of Ephesians is full of powerful promises for believers’ authority in Christ. Our inheritance depends on understanding the eternal promises we have through revelation.

 I particularly like this passage in verse 18 and 19. “I pray that the eyes of your heart be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.”

The Mystery

You can almost feel Paul trying to let them in on a great mystery which they don’t fully understand. It’s a wonderful prayer for any believer because it alerts them to an otherworldly understanding of Christ’s victory over death. In Paul’s prayer, there is both acknowledgement of the victory and recognition of our role in the earth. We are victorious with Jesus. If we can get an understanding of the historic significance of Christ’s life, death and resurrection, we’ll begin to walk in the same confidence. It’s the difference between surveying a plot of land and making arrangements once it’s been paid for.

With Christ however, we already have the plot. We can move forward once we recognize that He already paid for it. The only thing to do is begin building on it. The ownership we possess was free to us, but it’s now up to us to maintain it. That requires gaining knowledge of our new territory. Knowledge means learning and learning means growing up. Even that idea of ownership doesn’t carry the same eternal weight of what Paul describes to the Ephesians. This otherworldly understanding is something we can only grasp through revelation. “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you’re the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.” (verse 17).

The Vision

This isn’t a light bulb moment either. It’s a vision of the future that becomes clearer as we walk closer to God. Salvation comes first. We’re able to understand His great love initially, but recognizing our authority and power and dominion takes years. How many times have I read this chapter of Ephesians and thought “Yeah that sounds nice”. But Paul isn’t talking about nice. He practically begs them to understand their authority. A believer who understands authority versus one who doesn’t, is as different as a parent and a toddler. The toddler is still mostly helpless. Their world is small and shallow. They know they’re loved but lack any skill or experience to do for themselves. Their interest doesn’t’ expand beyond their immediate wants. Dependency defines their existence.

The parent knows how to manipulate the world and care for others. Life has taught them a lot about behavior, discipline, authority and power. They’re also wise enough to know when to use their power. Becoming a parent transformed their idea of what and who are important. Selflessness defines their existence. They make plenty of mistakes but recognize their obligation to others.

The Message

The journey from toddler to parent is an effective picture of our walk in Christ. The maturity we grow in demands a greater understanding of our role and inheritance. No one who is still a toddler will ever know what a great inheritance they have. They lack the mental framework for such a big idea. Many believers stall out somewhere in early childhood, unable to grow into the next phase of understanding. If the inheritance feels too much like fiction we don't put in the time to learn.

I can’t help thinking that Paul’s description is for an audience of ‘children’. The picture I have is of kids in a classroom sitting around a circle while a teacher reads to them from a story book. Their imaginations are quite vivid. Their stories contain knights and dragons and lands beyond the sea where no human has set foot. He’s asking them to imagine a place where they already have a title and authority. But it’s not a fictional place. It’s part of their inheritance.

Conclusion

The goal for Christians in every age is to get a vivid picture of their inheritance in Christ. There remains a gigantic gap in knowledge between salvation and effectiveness though. Paul doesn’t spell out the difficulty inherent in a life of service. Later in the letter he calls himself a “Prisoner of Christ Jesus” and points, here and there, to life’s difficulties. But he doesn’t dwell on it. His letter is full of promise and hope and victory because of the amazing contrast between death and life. We don’t focus on trials in this life because we have an example of how to overcome. The promise keeps us going through it all. The apostle Paul wants our focus on the eternal, not the temporary. That’s how you get children to listen. Point to better and show them how Christ did it first.

 

 

A Run Through Tulsa

 

Renewal and Direction: Trusting God with the Plans

I went for a run yesterday through the downtown area. During May and June the runner’s group takes a break from marathon training. Most of us keep our regular Saturday morning time though. I only know that because I saw a handful of regulars out on the bike path. Routines keep us centered. As tough as it is to get up early, it’s the feeling of missing out that keeps me going.

When you start training for long distances it shrinks the city to manageable routes. You get to know the streets and neighborhoods on a comfortable level. I can still get lost, but never without some idea of where I’m at. The most common thing that happens is that I assume a landmark is a farther distance away than it actually is. I ran through some old downtown neighborhoods, crossed over the 51 highway and shot straight though the heart of the business district. I turned left at the Drillers ballpark (Oneok field) down Greenwood Avenue and into the Oklahoma State University parking lot. I thought this was about 3 miles. It was closer to 2.5, good guess.

 I took a slightly modified route back through the city and old neighborhood. This time I went east toward the public bike trail. The trail leads to the Gathering Place and continues toward the river portion. The way back was 2 miles longer than I anticipated, poor guess.

 In all I covered just over 10 miles before getting back to my car. I figured I’d be in the 8 mile range. It’s tough to be exact, but I’ve always got a decent idea of where I’m at and how far I’ve run. Thanks to Runner’s World, I’ve developed a sense of direction when it comes to the city. Anytime I run past familiar spots, I remember what it looked like when I moved here.

It helps me gain perspective. It reminds me of the renewal taking place in my heart.

I’ve been coming downtown since at least 2009. I moved in 2008 and had at least one class at the community college TCC (Tulsa Community College). It sits at the edge of what most people would consider “downtown”. I didn’t venture into the Brady district until I took classes at Oklahoma State Tulsa campus. The Blue Dome district had the best restaurants and bars. One Communications professor I had took the whole class to McNellies Pub for pints and group discussion. This was a Master’s level course and everyone was over 21. It sticks in my mind because it was so different from the usual classroom experience I was used to. Right across the street was an El Guapo’s Cantina with a lovely open air balcony for those warm summer nights.

Tuesday nights meant $1 taco and $2 Tecates. Nothing says “college friendly” like endless beer and low quality meat till 2 am. My girlfriend met me there a couple of times for a cheap date and socializing. She always brought a few friends along, who doesn’t love chips and salsa? The new Drillers (baseball team) stadium went up in 2010. It’s a perfect location for what developers were trying to do in the city. The new facility ensured thirsty, hungry people would suddenly appear. “If you build it they will come” sorry, couldn’t resist. That’s about the time the Brady district, now called the Brady Arts district exploded. Summers are full of patrons at bars, restaurants, art shows and outdoor music at the park. A city block of high end condos looms large across from the stadium now. A brand new BMX indoor park and headquarters opened this year. 

Tulsa really nailed it on their summer downtown weekend experiences.

But all of this building has really changed the landscape in a short time. In my recent memory, the city has filled in so many of the empty lots and run down spaces I can hardly remember what existed before. It’s why I like to run through the downtown area. It’s an up close view of a city in renewal. Not all of the businesses that opened are still around of course. But there is life and energy where none existed. You can’t get the same experience in your car. Cities are notoriously difficult to navigate that way. All the stop lights and one way streets make noticing the changing landscape nearly impossible. Running allows for a more attentive look.

It also reminds me of the person I was just over a decade ago. The anxieties about the future seemed always present and in control. Everything changes when you move. A new life means a new job, friends, school, culture, church and even adjusting to the weather. We hardly ever end up where we aim, but maybe it’s for the best. Proverbs 16:9 says, “A man plans his way but the Lord directs his steps”. It’s oddly comforting to put your trust in the Lord and allow Him to point.

The renewal of the city means improvement, the renewal of my heart means direction.