Gift of Walking?

Saturday was a packed day full of activities. Sara and I started the day by going to the CNE with Mike, Susan, Steph and Dennis. It was so much fun! We ate at the food pavillion, browsed around the different displays of merchandise and played some games (Sara won a stuffed Homer and Bart Simpson dolls). After that, Sara and I headed to the India Mission team coffee house. It was a fund-raiser for the mission team and there were lots of people that came out to support the event. I walked into the almost-packed room and found my seat beside Hyal (we were supposed to meet up earlier to talk a bit on what's been happening with her, but traffic caused some delay). Sitting on my left side was Gideon, looking over at people happily while sipping his water. It was a neat event...there were lots of performances, skits, worship, auction, etc.. My favourite act was the guy who played the saxophone...he was awesome. A total Korean version of Kenny G! They ended the event with two praise songs...which I found to be appropriate, since everything is for Him. One of the songs had the lyrics "How great is our God." While this song was being performed, Gideon was singing especially loud...I was encouraged and prayed that I would get an opportunity to get to know him better. What you may not know about Gideon is that he has some deficiencies. He has Cerebral Palsy, debilitating him of some speech and hand movement. Anyways, the night was over and I headed to the washroom one last time before going home. I came out of the washroom and Sam came up to me asking if I had room in my car to drive one person home. I only had to take Sara, so of course I said "yes." He then asked whether it would be alright for me to drive Gideon home. From a room filled with so many people (many know Gideon better than me), I wouldn't normally be asked to do this. I knew then that God answered my prayer. In the car, I asked Gideon how he was spending his summer (a typical question that you ask someone to "break the ice"). Struggling to sound as clear as possible (it's still pretty difficult to make out what he's saying), he answered, "I've been walking." I was a bit confused by that and wondered what he meant. He explained to us that he walks from his house to church almost everyday. If you know where he lives and where the church is, you'll be shocked...If you know Toronto, he's walking from Bayview and Steeles to Don Mills and Eglinton! That's nearly 5 hours going and coming back! My initial reaction was, "why doesn't anyone give him a ride!" and I felt almost angry that he had to walk to church, because there was no ride. He explained further that he chose to do this in preparation for his mission trip to Albania this coming up January. He heard that there will be lots of walking during the mission trip and he wanted to prepare for that. You should've seen his eyes when he talked about going to Albania. He was using his ability to walk to glorify God. I thought to myself, how many of us use our many abilities to glorify God? We have been given so much...yet we waste them (often times) on things that seem so secondary. As C.S. Lewis once put it, "We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in the slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased." I've never made a mud pie in the slums or had holiday at the sea, but I'm guessing the latter option is better ;) Why settle for pleasing only ourselves when we'll find greater pleasure in satisfying Him?