A Spiritual Journey

One Man’s Experience

The photo could have been me and my dog.

Boyhood.

I’ve always had a vivid imagination. I think it comes from spending the first 6 years of my life in a small rural neighborhood on the outskirts of a small logging community in northern California. No other kids my age lived nearby, so I played by myself most of the time.

Early on I learned how to entertain myself. I roamed the hill near our house, sat on a rock cliff overlooking the highway and watched logging trucks pass underneath. Sometimes they’d see me and give a blast of their air horn, to my delight. I’d wave and yell and they’d blast some more. Those were carefree days — just me and my dog Blackie scampering around the hill, as we called it. When anyone asked where I lived, it was always “up on the hill”. Formally, it was known as Inspiration Point.

I played imaginary games: “Cowboys and Indians” was a favorite. I got adept at running and jumping from rock to rock, clambering over the huge pipeline that carried water to the city water tanks near our house and hiding behind trees so I could pick off the bad guys when they came looking for us. By the time I was five, I’d climbed every climbable tree on the hill many times, and there were a lot of trees, mostly pines and cedars. I never fell out of one; I never broke a bone…

That is, until, at the age of 5, I fell off the baluster railing on our tiny front steps while eating a dish of ice cream and broke my left elbow. I’d never felt pain like that in my life. I had to have surgery to repair the damage, which meant keeping my arm in a cast for several weeks. It itched something awful. My mom took a coat hanger and bent it so I could stick it up under the cast and scratch with it.

My imaginary games often involved my toy cars and trucks. By age 5, I had quite a collection of large Tonka trucks. I’d grade roads and build towns. I once built a dam between two large rocks that actually held water for a while. An older neighbor boy helped me with that project. We even had a short piece of water pipe that let water flow out. It looked pretty cool.

I didn’t grow up spiritual

My folks didn’t go to church. No one I knew went to church except a great aunt. She didn’t like smoking and wouldn’t let my folks smoke in the house. Both my parents smoked heavily, so we did not visit her often.

Dad was against church. He said they were just out to get your money.

My spiritual journey started when I was in the military. Two men came to our barracks one Sunday and asked if anyone wanted to go to church. They said if we went, we wouldn’t have to march. That sounded great to me. If I could get out of the barracks and not have to march: SIGN ME UP!

God works in mysterious ways.

A few years later, the Air Force assigned me to a hospital unit at Tachikawa Air Base in Japan. A few weeks after I arrived, a co-worker invited me to come with him when he went to teach an English conversation class at the Lutheran Service Center just outside the main gate.

I tagged along and the minister suggested we split the class into two groups and that I take one of them. I agreed. After class, a young lady came up to me and asked me if I could teach her some Spanish. I’d mentioned in the class that I’d studied Spanish in high school and college. I said, “sure!”

That young lady’s name was Yoko Asami. We started going out together. Nothing special, just long walks and talks. If we had enough money, we’d go to a tea house and get a cup of tea and talk for hours. A year later that young lady became my wife. We just celebrated 52 years together.

Yoko attended church at the Lutheran Service Center. To spend more time with her, I started attending, too. After attending for almost a year, I decided to get baptised. We planned the baptism for the week before our wedding.

My spiritual journey continues

The next turning point came when I got out of the Air Force and took a job with 3M in St. Paul, MN. My relatives thought we were nuts to move from the Sunshine State of Florida to snowy Minnesota. They may have been right. But, Minnesota in the springtime is very nice. That’s when I came to Minnesota for the first time. Green plants and trees everywhere. Blue skies and blue water. I loved it. Fishing in those 10,000 lakes sounded great.

We soon found a church, Saint Andrew’s Lutheran in Mahtomedi. Yoko saw the pastor’s worn and “holy” shoes and knew we belonged. Joining St. Andrew’s 46 years ago did not seem like a big deal at the time, but it marked another turning point in my spiritual journey.

The pastor loaned me the book A Man Called Peter by Peter Marshall. I read it and was enthralled by the story of this humble servant. I wanted what he had, a deep, abiding faith in God and in his Savior, Jesus Christ. We took classes. The sermons each Sunday seemed like they were designed with us in mind. They were positive and uplifting. Our faith grew.

I got involved with the church. The pastor asked me be a part of the Evangelism team and the church elected me to the Church Council, the governing board of the congregation.

Today, I continue to be involved, working with the prayer ministry and attending the Men’s Bible study. I’ve also discovered Contemplative Photography and Listening Circles and have started a contemplative prayer practice called Centering Prayer.

Our journey during COVID-19

For the past several years, my wife and I have done personal spiritual retreats at Spirit in the Desert, a retreat center in Carefree, Arizona. There we enjoy walking the labyrinth and the serenity prayer walk the Center has constructed in the desert. It calms our minds and restores our souls.

We came back from our last retreat renewed and refreshed and in good spiritual shape to deal with the COVID-19 crisis, which hit shortly after our return. Thankfully, we are both retired, which makes coping much easier.

We do church online and we each have our own spiritual practices. Yoko loves meditating while she sews, paints and makes greeting cards. I pray and journal and have a morning Quiet Time before starting my day. I write, too, often about spiritual matters. These days, I post what I write to the Medium/Illumination group. I enjoy keeping up with friends on Facebook and sharing items that interest me there.

Our Pastor of Spiritual Formation, Pastor Brian Norsman, recently did a Zoom class on Contemplative Photography that went very well. We shared photos and he talked about the experiences he’d had practicing contemplative photography and how it had helped him grow deeper in his faith. He’s guiding us as we open the “Eyes of our Hearts” with the camera lens.

The pastor also set up a Facebook page for our Contemplative Photography group. We post photos and comment on what they mean to us spiritually. Such photos lead to a greater awareness of how God enters into our lives and opens our hearts and minds to His Presence. It is a great site to visit when you need a spiritual lift. And, if you’d like to join and contribute photos, just click the ‘Join’ button.

I hope you are doing well in this time of COVID-19. I hope my story has given you a lift and perhaps encouraged you on your spiritual journey.

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Happy reading, writing and connecting!