Three Miles Per Hour

Volume 2 of The Poetry of Practical Living

Stepping away from the Substack for a month was a lovely and needed gift. In returning to the work, I felt it good and right to remember my reasons for beginning. Volume 1 included 50 ‘issues’ ; here we go for Volume 2! Thank you for reading.

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Did you know the human walking pace is around 3 miles per hour?

Photo by Alvin Mahmudov on Unsplash

If God walks with us, then it’s safe to assume we’re not going anywhere fast, are we?

Years ago, my priest talked about this from the pulpit, based on theologian Kosuke Koyama’s book, Three Mile an Hour God, in which Koyama articulates that God ‘goes slowly’ with man.

“God walks slowly because he is love. If he is not love he would have gone much faster. Love has its speed. It is an inner speed. It is a spiritual speed to which we are all accustomed. It is ‘slow’ yet it is lord over all other speeds since it is the speed of love. It goes on in the depth of our life, whether we notice it or not, whether we are currently hit by storm or not, at three miles an hour.”

When I started this Substack last fall, I was entering my first year of a new graduate program and practicing a new posture of belief: that my lifelong dream of ‘being a writer’ was already true. I didn’t have to create any new beliefs, I just had to inhabit them.

I named this “The Poetry of Practical Living” because I wanted these essays, poems, lists and songs to be a place where my faith was speculation and participation.

I want a God of weak theology, not as ornamental but ontological. The ground of my being. Incarnate.

Not flowers on the altar
Not a candle for the dead 
Nor sacrifice of animals,
Ashes spread across the head

Not a remembering of the past
Nor a longing for what’s to come 
Not the victory over sin,
cosmic game that Christ has won 

Not a strong theology 
or abstraction of the mind 
Not a vision in the clouds,
coming down to save mankind 

Redemption, not as a return 
No receipt for what once was 
To be made new is to be borne  
Again: miracle, beauty, love. 

I’m practicing a steady walking pace with God that I hope is reflected here on this Substack. I’m learning to enjoy the pace and lean into the patience of God. I’d love for you to continue walking with me.

What’s more satisfying than a good walk with a dear friend?

Come along, friends!

[Imagine me throwing on my cardigan like Mr. Rogers]