Life Lived Together Will Improve Our Mileage!

Since moving to the Grand North of Cameroon three months ago I have logged a little over 500 miles of running. My runs take me through small out of the way African villages where I am told some of the people have never seen a white man up close let alone seen one running through their village. Sometimes I find myself running through the city where everyone stops what they are doing to acknowledge my presence and encourage me by yelling “Courage” as I pass by. Much of the time my excursions take me out of the city along dry river beds on mostly deserted paths which, in all honesty is much more to my liking. Along these trails I often see African farmers smiling, sweating, and laughing as they work together on small plots of land, breaking up the hard, dry, and crusty ground with small hand tools. Close by are tiny mud brick houses with thatched roofs that are no bigger than a 4x8 tool shed back home. Outside the small but neat home are many children and one or two wives looking for firewood, cleaning the family pot for the next meal, preparing leaves, grass, and some spices for that meal, and simply enjoying each other’s company. Life is hard for families in much of Africa but especially so along these out of the way trails that connect village to village in a tapestry of community. Whereas times are hard for these people, times are not desperate. There’s always a smile, a greeting, an acknowledgement, an encouragement, a hand offered to help, and a willingness to stop what they’re doing to look at you and ask you who you are and why you’re here. This used to bother me. I’m not used to such interaction and I really have never cared to become more than anonymous. But, you can’t hold onto this kind of selfishness for long here for the simple reason that life is hard, yes even on Americans who have come to help. Tough times and dry ground, physical and spiritual do more than toughen us up—they tend to also soften us up so that we are able to recognize what most Africans have known and enjoyed all along—life lived together is more fun and valuable than a life lived alone. We really do need each other if for nothing else than to make the often tedious, sometimes hard, and once in awhile, just plain painful journey through life a little bit more fun, more doable, and far more interesting than living life on your own. The African trails I run never seem to end. They go on and on seemingly forever into this southern fringe of the largest desert on earth. And when you do see people on them they’re rarely if ever alone. For as they say here in Africa, “If you want to travel fast go alone. If you want to travel far take others with you.” Makes me wonder if I could have extended those 500 miles out some more if I had chosen to run with others rather than alone. Also gets me to thinking about how much further we could all be on our journey with Christ if we weren't so dead-set on walking alone. This just might make a good New Year’s Resolution! (Hebrews 10:24-25)