"Re-Walk"

41 year-old Radi Kaiof, an Israeli veteran, is paralyzed from an accident in1988. The paratrooper has not walked in twenty years. On Monday of this week he took his first steps since the accident. Strapped to an apparatus called the “Rewalk” – a battery powered exoskeleton – the soldier experienced life upright again. The Rewalk gives the user control with a remote attached at the wrist.Crutches aid with balance as the paralytic leans forward. The contraption helps a person of paralysis stand, walk, and climb stairs. Muscle and lung activity in the upright position strengthen the user’s overall health. However, “It’s not just about health, it’s also about dignity,” assures the inventor of the Rewalk, Emit Goffer. Radi agreed: “Only when standing up can I feel how tall I really am and speak to people eye to eye, not from below.”While the invention is Goffer’s brainchild, he doesn’t know what it is like to walk with it. He, himself, is a paraplegic but still does not have enough mobility in his arms or hands to control the instrument panel! (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26391953/)
There are times in our lives when we are forced to function by the support of external mobility. We do not have it in our power to coordinate activity for our own good. We must learn to trust, to lean into, the proper support systems. We are braced by intentional motion and accountable direction. Love the church. She is present in your life, not for the sake of adding burden to your back, but mobility to your limbs. Be accountable to Christian fellowship. Yield to the practices. Trust the disciplines. Render yourself to the directions of Christian history that strengthen spiritual health and stamina: read scripture, pray, meditate, memorize, give, serve, show compassion…take up your cross - this is the framework of mobility our Lord has taught us to share.
- Tob Adams

Harrison Bergeron and Meditation: A Healthy Dose of Quiet

Kurt Vonnegut has a great little science fiction story titled "Harrison Burgeron" where the characters wear ear-pieces that essentially keep them from thinking about anything for too long. "Every twenty seconds or so, the transmitter would send out some type of sharp noise to keep people like George (father of the main character) from taking unfair advantage of their brains." While Vonnegut's theme is a little different, the details of the story and his social commentary spoke to me on a spiritual level.
I am working through The Celebration of Discipline right now by Richard Foster with some friends and have spent a great deal of time focusing on his chapter on meditation. Speaking on Christian meditation in general he says, "Inward fellowship of this kind transforms the inner personality. We cannot burn the eternal flame of the inner sanctuary and remain the same, for the Divine Fire will consume everything that is impure." I have been encouraged to hear that some of those in my group have experienced the "Divine Fire" through meditation. One friend commented that his meditation on Scripture before prayer had progressed in a way that had lead to some humbling moments before God. Many of us though are experiencing the struggles of the discipline, the challenges presented by all the noise in our lives. The radio, the television, my latest iPod purchase, and my precious cell phone leave little time for quiet reflection.

The genius of the vision in Vonnegut's short story is found in the idea that noise and distraction are so prevalent that they "handicap" us. The wall of sound and distraction is so large in 2008 that I cant imagine what it will be like in 2081 (the setting of his story). I am realizing a process that began in my search to find the discipline to meditate, has also illustrated the spiritual and holistic need for silence in my everyday life (beyond the time set aside for prayer and meditation). I am working to use the 'off' button a little more these days and infuse a healthy dose of quiet into my daily routine...

- Matt Litton