Guest blogger: Harry BrocksieckHarry and Barbara Brosckieck are retired Salvation Army officers from the Central Territory in the USA. They have also served at the Eastern European Training College in Finland.
Physical exercise: noun – activity and movement, especially when intended to keep a person healthy.
How do you make life decisions?
My step-dad helped me choose a life style. From the time I was 4 to about 14 my family spent every Friday and/or Saturday night in a local bar. My step-dad sat on a bar stool, drank, smoked and conversed with anyone who would talk to him. My mother took us along to protect the family income; we sat at a table and entertained ourselves. One source of entertainment was to watch people change over the course of the evening. Some men became much more animated as the evening wore on - unfortunately it was before the TV program - ‘America’s Funniest Home Videos.’ Attractive women would come in and sit as far from the typical scumbags that infest many bars. After about an hour the scumbags would go to the bathroom and seem to forget where they had been sitting and took a seat next to the attractive women. Somehow the alcohol made the scumbags more interesting Sometimes they got so interested in each other my mother had to distract us and they often they left together. After about an hour of drinking my step-dad would buy us a candy bar. Our mother would cut it into 4 equal pieces, five if she wanted a piece or a coke with 4 straws, maybe 5. As I got older I compared two life styles 1) the people at the corps who were very similar to the bar people educationally and in economic status who, during testimony time, tried to remember their week and how God had blessed them and used problems as stepping stones to 2) these who sat in a bar trying to forget their week and problems.
Major Herb Fuqua (senior) taught me that crime had an up side. Our Corps Cadet training program sent us with the soldiers who regularly visited the county jail. One of the guys shared that being in jail wasn’t so bad - 3 square meals a day and you don’t have to lift a finger. However, I became very sensitive to doors closing - leaving the corps building the door shut gently with a soft closing sound but when the door of the jail shut it was a decisive bang and when the locking mechanism made the door closing secure I knew I would rather work for my 3 square meals.
I learned I was "handsome and sexy in my uniform" when I was 14 years old. It was a Friday night on Front Street in Quincy. Ten or so bandsmen, corps cadets and soldiers were in front of one of the more sinful bars on the street. The routine was Major Fuqua took one corps cadet into the bar with him and he started singing with his guitar - he never had to ask if we could do this, we were live entertainment - then the chosen one would give his/her testimony. Major continued to sing while the chosen one would pass out War Crys and take a collection. It was my turn to go with Major into the bar. After I had given my testimony I started from my left contacting each customer. In the center of the bar was a more lighted place and there she sat on what must have been a solid steel barstool. She had a fire engine red satin dress that covered most of her 400 or so pounds. The only things almost totally exposed were her ample breasts. As I got closer she said so everyone could hear, "Honey, you are so handsome and sexy in your uniform, come give me a kiss." Her lips also were fire engine red and the biggest lips I have ever seen. The lesson - consider the source.
Beauty is more than skin deep. As the DS for Chicago my job was to fly to Kansas City, rent a truck and drive a load of supplies given to the SA for use in the corps and institutions. I made arrangements to pick up the truck and caught a plane to KC. The plane was delayed but when the taxi stopped at the truck company the gates were still open and a light was on in the office so I paid the driver and he left. I shivered as I crossed the lot only to find that it was only a night light. I had to find a phone (this was bc - before cells) to call the guy to get the truck. I found myself on a very cold night in a warehouse district with the only thing open was a bar. I opened the door into a dark and very warm place. I told the bartender my plight and was pointed to the phone. The dispatcher said he was at a birthday party but would arrive in about 2 hours. I asked the bartender if I could wait for the man to arrive. He said I could if I bought a drink. So I took my Sprite and sat at a table away from the bar. About 20 minutes into my wait a spotlight came on and a 31 ½ year old woman stepped onto a small stage and proceeded to gyrate in a variety of ways. Unlike the woman in red this one had about 5 maybe 4 inches of cloth covering her. I watched for a few minutes and went back to my book. After her performance she worked the bar and finally came and sat down at my table. She was pretty with pretty brown eyes. I told her who I was and why I was there. She proceeded to tell me her story. She wanted to be a professional dancer - ballet, etc. Introduced to her 25 year old husband-to-be while a sophomore in high school she became pregnant as a junior and soon a second child. She and her husband’s entertainment was to go to a different bar every weekend for the 9 years of their marriage. At one bar a 19 year-old flashy sexy woman took a liking to her husband. They left together and were gone for a week. When they came back there was not room for two women in the same house - she moved to her mother’s, who was watching the kids that evening. Beyond the brown in her eyes was sadness for a lost life, a lost profession but a deep love for her children and an honest desire to be valuable in the world and a hope that had not died. I promised her that God had a wonderful plan for her life and her children if she would seek him. In a future beyond time, I hope to see her fully clothed in white dancing for the Lord. Lesson - always look for opportunities.
Communion, real communion, often comes as a surprise. The Moscow train stopped at St. Petersburg where an elderly gentleman about my age joined me in my coupe. He had a small paper bag for luggage and a 2 litter coke bottle filled with half milk and half coffee. My limited Russian got several facts from him – two grandchildren in St. Petersburg, retired, a space scientist who helped put the Soviet Soyuz system in space. Here we were a Russian and an American, former enemies, talking with each other. Barbara always gave me 4 chocolate chip cookies for my trips to Moscow - two to be eaten going and two for the return trip. It was time to go to bed; I brought out my 4 cookies. I offered to share 2 with him. He offered to share with me his cold coffee - we had communion together. Another trip, this time from Moscow to Helsinki, I found myself with a young Russian woman and her 5 year old daughter returning to her Finnish husband after a visit with grandparents in Moscow. Fortunately English was the language common in the family. It was going to be awkward for me to sleep all night in the coupe with just this woman and her daughter, however, the surprised steward said the train was full and he did not see my problem. So we got to know each other. I got to teach the little girl how to play tic-tac-toe and connect the dots, we played with her toys and we had a good time. The next day at noon as the train pulled into the Helsinki station the little girl handed me her 3’ long stuffed snake. I took it, she said I should put it around my neck, which
I did, she took both ends of the snake and pulled me to her and kissed me on the cheek.
The CSM said to the 5 teenage boys whom he was trying to teach something about being a soldier along with 5 or 6 adults."If you don’t hear anything else I have said in these 10 weeks of classes, hear this. ‘Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you!’ Matt 6:33" I wondered if he knew what he was talking about but I decided to trust him.
This reflection is about physical exercise.
My first jog in the morning was the result of frustration and possibly anger. As I ran my mood was lightened, the frustration gave way, my anger dissipated and when I returned for breakfast I was in a much better frame of mind. So I jogged the next morning too. It had such a good effect on me that I continued, incorporated time for intercessory prayer, and regular conversions with God.
Over the years as I jogged, now walk, this physical exercise has only followed conversing with God and study of the Bible as the best way for me to resolve issues and grow spiritually. So it is now a steady part of my spiritual growth.
One more story - the government was trying to get us to wear seat belts. I naturally resisted until I heard a state trooper say, "I have never unbuckled a dead person wearing a seat belt." That was the final push I needed to start wearing seat belts.
We all know that we need to do some type of physical exercise.
My prayer is that you will begin or continue to improve your spiritual life!
Physical exercise: transitive verb – to undertake physical exercise in order to keep fit and healthy!
Harry
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