Tuesday, February 14, 2012

We Walk By Faith, Not By Sight

Forrest, Gwen, and I have been walking three days a week for seven weeks. Two days of a fast-paced twenty minutes. One day of an easier pace but longer walk. Speed and endurance. We are progressing.

I'm not ready to buy new pants yet or consider the local 5Ks but I do notice some improvement.

The road we walk on has a patch of newer asphalt. It's about fifteen feet long and is the width of the road. The first few times out I never saw it. We didn't go that far. Then we did. The first time we hit it we turned around just after we passed it. The next time we went a little farther.

The black stripe across the road became a marker in my mind that we were just about to turn around - I kept telling myself to keep up the pace because we had almost made the halfway point of the speed walk: ten minutes out, ten minutes in. After turning around we'd cross the black stripe within a minute or so.

Then it was farther back to the black stripe. And then farther.

Today we passed the black stripe and I started thinking that Forrest (our leader and way out in the lead) would turn around at the next light pole or driveway. He kept going. Soon I thought to myself, "We've never been this far on a speed day." Speaking the words out loud was an impossibility - I was breathing heavily and thankful that I could. The good thing about inertia is that once I get going I tend to keep going. It would have been harder on my knees and hips to stop than to keep going! So I kept the throttle wide open.

One light pole, then two. One driveway, then another. Then I saw the red house. We had been as far as the red house one other time but that was on an endurance day. I realized that Forrest was taking us to the red house on a speed day.

I've been bragging the last couple of weeks about how I'm not as tired or sore after our walks. Yesterday I told myself that I must not be pushing myself as much as before so I started out this morning determined to put more into it. It's not that I've been slacking it's just that the markers of the past are easier, commonplace. I'm used to walking a quick pace to the black stripe and turning around.

So I was determined to push myself today. The march to the black stripe was going to be at a pace that would push my lungs and muscles. And it did.

But Forrest kept going.

Do you get comfortable with your current spiritual walk with Jesus Christ? And you just keep doing what you've been doing? It's not bad it's just not growth and improvement. Where you are today with Christ is like that black stripe in the road. That's good enough, you may say. Or maybe just a little more, but not much. You may have convinced yourself that your walk with Jesus is just fine because you've been doing this for a while and you've got it down - no problems.

The problem is that there is so much more that you'll never experience if you keep doing what you've always done. Your experience with Christ yesterday is special. Like the black stripe, it will always be there as a reminder of where you've been. But yesterday's experience is not the goal. It's a step along the way.

We need to step out in faith and see how far God will take us.

By the way, Riley walks with us on Saturdays. Take your kids along on your spiritual journey, too.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I like this a lot!!! Good application!
Deana