Month: June 2019

The roads are now getting quieter on the whole, and this is good. There are many straight roads today, as there were yesterday…

…but now they are going more north again. We have left behind the Solway shore and the distant presence of what may or may not be Skiddaw, a reminder of England, that blighted, third rate little nation, and the one I love.

Janet continues to walk well and deal well with impatient me, hoping to get done before the showers build up. I met Janet in the midlle of her morning’s walk, at the excellent Drummuir ice cream farm. One of us (I’ll not say who) has now had five scoops of ice cream in 24 hours.

Janet is much heartened by the news that the hand cyclist she saw a couple of days ago has now completed her journey in record time.

We have a day off tomorrow, and the break will be welcome.

God bless all who walk the roads of earth,
going to work, looking for work, 
seeing family, saving family from persecution,
walking for fun, walking to achieve, walking in pain. 
Walk with us, as we walk with Christ. 

Nice cumulus I just saw…

A quieter day for the walker, mostly on back roads, with less wind and more sun. This dog rose was one of many (and different coloured) ones by the back road near the Solway shore.

There were some highlights – the ice cream farm at the end of the day, but above all the Savings Banks Museum (yes) in Ruthwell, which Janet visited as she walked through. The welcome was warm, the story informative and the central character inspiring.

The central character was Henry Duncan, a Presbyterian minister, who set up the first savings bank, to make what we now call financial services available to people of limited means. He also saved a historic cross which may have been one of many marking a pilgrim route from Whithorn to Lindisfarne (we saw this later – it was huge). And he was the first person in Britain to recognise a dinosaur footprint in sandstone. And the list goes on… He was quite a character, who was more than ready to speak his mind, and what struck me above all was that he was a whole gospel Christian. His faith was about ‘religion’, but it was also about social justice. Add in his thirst for knowledge, and he was quite a hero.

The cross was not your normal Celtic cross – it had the salvation story carved on it in the form of Bible scenes, and is thought to have been carved by Italian stonemasons.

Museum s facebook post here… https://www.facebook.com/410973318939413/posts/2274313189272074/?sfnsn=mo

God help us to be whole gospel Christians;
to claim justice for all people,
whatever their social standing;
to show love for people in poverty, 
as you do;
to respect people
who are completely unlike ourselves;
and to keep our faith alive. 

Today was one of those cold-hot days, with sunny periods and a brisk unhelpful wind. Such days are often quite hard for the walker. The traffic on the straight sections of the B road was also unhelpful. But Janet made it through Annan and out the other side, heading towards the valley of the Nith as a route north westwards. Some of the local footpaths were flooded, although this part of the island didn’t see the worst of the recent rains.

Yesterday, in the car, we made a brief visit to Robert the Bruce’s cave….

Supposedly a spider taught him the value of perseverance. And this cave is one of several that lay claim to be the site of this revelation. Anyway, maybe perseverance is overrated – for instance some churches may have to find new cultural forms in which to live as the “body of Christ”, rather than doing the same old thing all the time.

This is Janet, crossing the border, 
bringing the map and a bottle of water:
the wind is blowing, but she’s just fine:
she grits her teeth and makes good time. 

(… with apologies)

On the road round the east end of the Solway Firth, a lot of end to end routes converge. Soon they will diverge again. But Janet has met lots of LEJoGers and JoGLErs today. Just as many routes have come together, so have many motivations; explorations, honouring a memory, raising money for charity, finding out about oneself. There was a handcycle athlete heading for a world record… and so on.

Sometimes the motives are complex and mixed. FWIW I think my motivations in lots of areas are more complex than I’d like to admit: but if it works, it works.

O God of love, 
help us to believe right, we pray. 
But better than that, 
help us to do right. 

We sit here in the dry, as the rain beats on our pod, thankful to have got in the car before it really started. Outside it is grey, the trees are wet, the grass is damp, and the Belted Galloways are hiding in a distant part of the field. God is creator of rain and sun.

News websites are full of conflict and unhappiness. Normally (not always) happy times pass secretly, without a lot of media attention. On this campsite yesterday, someone had a happy 75th party. I believe Jesus suffers with those who suffer, rejoices with those who are happy, and can bring people/communities to a happier place. God shares in tears and happiness.

Some people go on and on about the amazing deeds of the Spirit of God: but I also see her at work in the prosaic. God works in the ordinary and the extraordinary.

Above all, God is just… God.

And just now, here in the campsite, now the weekenders have gone, it is a bit wet, a bit ordinary, a bit sad and a bit happy. The sadness is the rain, the happiness is a nice meal, Janet here, and her solid walking. The job is 55% done. Tomorrow, we hope, she crosses the border.

God, one God, wonderful God, 
God in Trinity, 
open us up to know you
in the ordinary things of life, 
in the road beneath our feet, 
in friends, 
in jobs done, 
in relationships healed
and hurt overcome,
in the sound of a kettle. 

Janet is back walking today, and once again displayed her amazing powers of avoiding rain. Today she dodged all the showers, and was on top walking form too, going down the straight road from Brackenburgh to Burthwaite in quick time.

In the middle, we paused at Southwaite services for refreshment. I left the car outside on the local road, because of all the dire warnings about authorised traffic only. But the gates were rusted open and there were plenty of locals going in and out, using the service station as a motorway junction. This obedience of mine (selective though it may be) feels like a character defect.

Tomorrow is Trinity Sunday, and I leave it to a new generation to explain the inexplicable. Maybe we wouldn’t have so much difficulty if generations of theologians hadn’t tried so hard to nail it all down.

Janet is doing a daily blog…

We’re back on the road again now, staying just north of the border for a few days as Janet walks through Carlisle and into Scotland.

She starts again tomorrow, having taken some days off to help with a summer school, and despite the break she really seems up for it again.

The place here is lovely, and we are being soothed by birdsong.

Great day’s walking, and I was with Janet for some of it. The route was generally downhill, the showers were dodged, and we had Cross Fell and Great Dun Fell to look at on one side, and the top of Blencathra on the other.

Later on, we saw this at Brougham Hall.

Today Janet passed level with Shap on the minor roads east of the motorway. Some of the route was on the moorland track to Oddendale, and I enjoyed walking with her for part of this section. It was proper moorland weather, with showers almost joined together. The sky looked like it’d been painted in watercolours.

Today was day 60, half way through the days, another milestone.

I thank God for science. Science told us that the rain would set in just after lunch. So Janet started her walk at 8am, and it was all done before one. The rain came on cue, and we were in the dry.

The readings for Pentecost remind me that the glory of the togetherness of races at Pentecost is just a hair’s breadth different from the horror of the togetherness of the races recounted in the Babel story. The life, the work, the influence, the love, the spirit of God makes all the difference.

We’d all be poorer without international cooperation: for instance, without it, Janet would never have known when the rain was going to start. If we can’t manage to have the love of God in our hearts, can we at least manage to respect people of other races?

Anyway, it’s still raining outside. It’s gloomy, and the dampness seems to close out all sense of joy. I went out to look for something in the car. I could hear a distant barking dog – and the rain.