The Bungee Cord 1-9-23

Hello,

“You should change your shoes if you are going to rob a bank.”

That is what was said to me as I got off my short daily exercise on the elliptical machine and passed the leg press machine on my way to play pickleball. The voice did not bear the deep rumble of a muscle popping hulk, and when I looked to my left to see the orator of the comment my eyes fell upon a slight little old lady sitting on the weight machine between her reps. Her gray hair was neatly kept under a headband. She was clad in sleek exercise pants and she had a baggy sleepless t-shirt layered over her underarmor-ish top.

“You should change your shoes if you are going to rob a bank,” she said again pointing down at my pickleball shoes (pictured above). “Someone tried to rob a bank wearing bright yellow shoes, and the shoes were the way the police caught him.” She snickered.

“Thanks,” I said back, “I’ll remember that.” I snickered.

Now, there’s a huge danger in anthropomorphizing God, but if when I saw this small elderly woman sitting on that leg press machine I imagined that her image could be on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Aged. Gentle. Strong.

I was having a bit of a rough day with my lifelong companion, depression/anxiety. I’ve learned that when these days come, it is important to press through them with physical activity and things that I enjoy doing. Although exercise and pickleball are part of my daily routine, on days when the “dog” (as Winston Churchill called his depression) bites, and thankfully it doesn’t bite too often, it is even more important to keep those things up.

I never expected that God would intervene that day in the work-out room of the Ligonier YMCA. Yet as I was trudging through the dark turmoil spinning in my brain, the spiral of gloom was interrupted by this elderly woman’s humorous words. “You should change your shoes if you are going to rob a bank.” A ray of hope broke into my despair.

I’ve don’t remember noticing her when I have exercised at the Y before. I really hate going nowhere on those machines, so generally I am focused on getting my “running” done and getting out of there to play pickleball. But she was there again today, sitting on the leg press machine and as I passed her getting off the elliptical machine, she pointed to my shoes and said, “I really like those shoes,” and I heard a reminder of hope.

Now some may say that what happened to me was an incident of simple human interaction and God had nothing to do with it. Maybe. But as a Christian, I have seen that God, embodied God’s self in a human, Jesus, who brought hope into all creation by simple human interaction. It seems to me that that is how God has decided to work. Not with shock and awe, but with simple human interaction. “You should change your shoes if you are going to rob a bank.”

(By the way, I have since found out that she is 93 years old!)

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (GGAP)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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