Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 91 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom.

Hiking With a Limp (1)

Thank you for joining us for our 7 day a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 91 of our Trek. Yesterday we finished exploring our trail with 10 waypoints on making wise decisions.  For the next few days, we will consider what it means to hike with a limp.

We are recording our podcast from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. I spent Saturday working in our formal dining room, stripping the old varnish off of the wood work, which is a lot of wood as there is quartersawn oak wainscoting about ¼ of the way up around the room as well as on the doors, windows, and two built-in cabinets. In other rooms that I have already completed, I used paint and varnish remover, which is quite caustic and messy.  For this room, I decided to try a different tactic and use Scotch Bright pan scrubbers and mineral spirits. While it does not strip it quite as clean down to the bare wood, it did do a good job removing the varnish without as much of a mess, clean up, and toxic fumes.

With each room that I work on, I have come up with some slight way of improving the process. With the size of the house and the renovations left to do, I still have many opportunities for improvements. As with all the skills that we possess, if we continue to learn and practice, we can improve our craft. This is part of the refining process.

It is time now to head out on our Trek for today. As we climb a steep and very rugged trail, I want you to think about how difficult it would be to hike if you were recovering from a broken hip or a hip replacement?  I have a few friends that have gone through this painful surgery and recovery.  Some even within our Wisdom-Trek team that travels with us each day. While I have not personally experienced hip issues, from my understanding, it leaves many with a permanent limp and pain that may never fully go away.

All of us go through trials and tribulations in life that can leave us with a limp that affects us throughout our lives. This can be a very humbling and refining process for us. From a figurative standpoint, ask yourself, "What has caused me to limp, and what have I learned from it?" Has this situation changed who you are?

There is a saying that we should “Never trust a leader who doesn’t walk with a limp.” This saying comes from the story of the start of the nation of Israel and is recorded in the Bible in the book of Genesis Chapter 32 verses 22-32 where Jacob, the grandson of Abraham and son of Isaac, wrestled with God. This is the story:

"During the night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two servant wives, and his eleven sons and crossed the Jabbok River with them. After taking them to the other side, he sent over all his possessions. This left Jacob all alone in the camp, and a man came and wrestled with him until the dawn began to break. When the man saw that he would not win the match, he touched Jacob’s hip and wrenched it out of its socket. Then the man said, 'Let me go, for the dawn is breaking!' But Jacob said, 'I will not let you go unless you bless me.'  'What is your name?' the man asked. He replied, 'Jacob.'  'Your name will no longer be Jacob,' the man told him. 'From now on you will be called Israel, because you have fought with God and with men and have won.'  'Please tell me your name,' Jacob said. 'Why do you want to know my name?' the man replied. Then he blessed Jacob there. Jacob named the place Peniel (which means 'face of God'), for he said, 'I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been spared.' The sun was rising as Jacob left Peniel, and he was limping because of the injury to his hip. (Even today the people of Israel don’t eat the tendon near the ...