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Good morning.

I haven’t had a dog for quite a few years now, but I’ve noticed that when it comes to recreational walking, until recently most walkers were either dog walkers, or else those strange Lycra-clad power walkers with furiously pumping arms.

Until recently of course. Because nowadays everyone is out walking for pleasure, and for our daily exercise.  As we walk purposefully and cautiously, we tend to avoid eye contact and friendly greetings, as well as physical proximity.  With no time ‘to stop and stare’, perhaps we have no time to stop and care…

We can walk with minds occupied with our own thoughts, as those for whom the destination is important and the journey irrelevant, in an impatient rush, focusing on our own hurried path.  There is a certain irony in the fact that, even in these slower paced days, I still haven’t had time to read a recommended book which I bought, called ‘The ruthless elimination of hurry’.

The Bible is full of stories of journeying and pilgrimage, perhaps the most powerful being the account of two disciples on the road to Emmaus on that first Easter evening, so preoccupied and distracted that they fail to recognise the Risen Jesus as he comes alongside them.

As we journey through life with heads down, eyes averted and ears closed, we too can fail to recognise God in others, and in the beauty of the created world.

So let us slow down, look up and around us at our fellow travellers, and walk in the peace and strength of the God who will be alongside us, wherever today’s journey may take us.

Lord of our journeying, as you guide us through life, open our eyes to notice those who travel with us, open our ears to your voice, and open our hearts to the life that is around us.  Amen