One time, I had a guest at my house, he was invited to preach for me about the value of the seminary I graduated from and encourage donations to the institution and also invite people to think about whether they were called into ministry. It turned out to be a good Sunday for him to be with us.
You see, my buddy and I were training for a marathon together. It’s not that we knew what we were doing or hoped for particularly impressive times, we were two men in our thirties, both with kids, both needing some time out of the house, time to think, needing an adventure, and hopeful we could avoid the dreaded DNF.
And if we are being honest, we probably both just needed a friend and if running a marathon was what was required for that then both us would tolerate hundreds of kilometres of running and the sore bodies that came with it. Lonely, and sad but true, as that may seem.
To make this work we had to run very early in the morning, like before the fishermen were out early, before the newspaper was at the door early, and most certainly before the sun was up early. Even in the longer days we had to start before the sun because its heat was painful.
My wife, worried that I was running around town in the dark all the time bought me a florescent cap, florescent gloves, and eventually I took it up a notch and bought a florescent vest with a huge reflective arrow on the back, all to help even the sleepiest, or drunkest of drivers to notice me.
We lived on Vancouver Island and running had lead us to some close calls. Like the time I very nearly ran into a deer standing on a path, or when we crossed paths with a herd of about 30 elk, and there was the cougar that was known to prowl near time when its food got scarce and my buddy saw one time…as they say, you only have to run faster than the guy you are with.
Still, for all the wildlife, it was clearly the cars we needed to worry about, the damage they could do to a a lightly clad runner didn’t bear thinking about.
One morning, it was foggy and dark out, we had run and run and run. We were nearing home, maybe 1500m to go, there was a cross walk at a “T” intersection just off the highway.
We saw the truck, we heard it gearing down as it approached the intersection, and so we continued on into the crosswalk, sure we had been seen in all our reflective glory.
I was about halfway across it when the driver gunned the gas.
To be fair because the cross walk was at a T intersection I believe he was looking over his left shoulder checking for oncoming traffic and seeing none he sped up, not expecting anyone to be out on the road as he brought his head back to the forward position.
He was moving quick, he was a newspaper delivery guy, about 50 papers read rolled up on his dash board.
I didn’t know that yet.
I was in the intersection and I heard the acceleration, those pickup engines can be loud.
Instinctively I turned towards the noise.
A pathetically comic male Instinct kicked in and I tried to face it, like a bear.
My hands banged the hood, its bumper took out my knees.
I must have pushed off the hood with my arms because I landed about 15 feet away, lying on my back. My body was all splayed out like a starfish or like those old chalk outlines they used to put in movies to signify a dead body used to be here. Now we knew why they were shaped as they were.
My running buddy was beside me instantly.
The driver jumped out of the pickup, in a total panic, phone in hand ready to call 911 for help.
That’s when I hear my running buddy turn into a lifelong friend.
He was telling the guy I was tough, I was probably fine, give me a minute, I was probably just winded.
Have you ever had a friend who believed in you so much that you could get hit by a truck and he wold assume you had everything under control?
In the end, we calmed the poor driver down, no I didn’t want to press charges or mess up his newspaper delivery career, we all make mistakes.
As we slowly walked to my place my friend asked about my work for the day and if I might be able to get it covered, and if he could help out in some way with that (it being a Sunday someone was going to have to preach in a couple of hours). As it happened I was not preaching that morning anyways, we were hosting a special guest and my buddy could introduce him as well as I could.
When I got home I woke up my wife, and in an “aw shucks” manner told her what had happened and I though maybe she should get more sleep, and pardon the noises I made as I showered and changed at such a weird time. She bolted out of bed, far more concerned about it than I was and made sure I was in one piece, not that she didn’t trust my buddy as much as I did.
She set me up on the couch, pillows under the knees, ice on top, maybe because I was still riding the adrenaline (eventually, while the family was at church, I got stiff and walked to the hospital thinking they should check me out and that the walk would help with the soreness) but the whole adventure didn’t seem all that serious to me, and the hospital confirmed this too.
But I think I was more laid back about it because I had made a friend, and he was right, everything was under control.
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