I remember the walk home from school when I was in the first grade in 1942. There were at least three other boys and we would leave the long ago torn down elementary school building on the corner of Lincoln and Minnesota in Willow Glen to begin the game we had made up before we even crossed the street and headed for home in the Palm Haven area. The names and faces of those boys are long forgotten, but I know that we knew every crack in the sidewalk and every square of cement that had letters or numbers in it. You see, in our game, it was necessary to jump over those squares or you would risk losing the game of who could make it all the way home without landing in one of those squares and getting blown up. Somehow our game was related to the events of WWII that were taking place that we were aware of, but didn't fully understand. I was busy telling my 96 year old mom this story just a couple of months ago when I visited her in Scottsdale, Arizona. As we talked about me walking home from school, she began to tell me how she didn't have the strength to walk as much as she did just days and weeks before. It was as if she was telling me that we weren't going to be leaving the house for walks or even going to go downstairs much on this visit. We would just sit in the little area off her bedroom and tell stories. So, she began to tell me how she walked so many places as she grew up in Kansas. "Did you know that I was a good athlete in high school? My favorite sport was basketball." But, walking to church with her dad and mom was something she always looked forward to.

Mom didnt just attend the little church there in Carl Junction, she played the piano for the services from an early age. She then reminded me that I loved to walk and run everywhere. I guess because I walked and ran and jumped so often coming home from the first grade in Willow Glen and all the way till I finally got a car my junior year at Fremont that I became a good track athlete and won the league championship in the triple-jump my senior year. Before I met Arlene I had one favorite memory of a walk I took. It was the walk from the locker room as a member of the Frosh team at Stanford on a Saturday about this time of the year long ago. The special part was going down the ramp into the Stadium. I've told this story to mom and many others over and over, but I still get emotional as I remember that God had been faithful in granting the wish I'd made as a boy and that He was walking with me then. I reminded her of the walks Arlene and I took as a newly engaged couple at Mt. Hermon holding hands along the trails and down at the beach at Santa Cruz that summer of 1957. It was so easy for mom and me to move from talking of our physical walking to our spiritual walk with the Lord.

The verses in the Bible that speak of our walk with the Lord bring back wonderful memories. Romans 6:4 says "By our baptism we were buried with Him and shared his death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from death by the glorious power of the Father, so also we have been raised to walk in newness of life." I was saved by Christ's death and resurrection and I began to walk with Him in my new life. I learned that I was to "walk by faith", 2 Cor. 2:7. I was to "walk in truth", 3 John 3. I was to "walk in love", Eph. 5:2. I was to "walk worthy of the Lord," Col. 1:10. Our "walk" is the life that we live every day. And I have the privilege of "walking" this life with the God of the universe here at Valley Christian at this time in my life. Mom brought me back to the present. "I've never seen the Lord Jesus, Jerry, but He has always been right beside me walking with me. And I know that He is walking beside me in this last part of my journey, too." It was so natural for us to talk of these remaining faltering steps my mom will take in this life because she knows that Jesus is walking with her still. She is anxious for the journey to be over. She told me that she wanted me to promise I would continue to walk close to the Lord when she was gone. I promised her that I would and told her it is so much easier to walk the path of life with the Lord when you've had the example of one you love walking that path before you. I want to encourage all who read this to realize that your players, your students, people you don't even know, they are watching you. Show them you are faithful in walking close to the Lord. It will encourage them to follow you as you follow Christ.

Coach Hitch