It’s hard to walk when you know how to run…

I recently began thinking about this concept of the Christian walk when I popped my knee cap… again.

When I was still heavy it happened regularly (like every 3 months for a year). I actually was diagnosed with having an underdeveloped muscle in my knee when I was 16.  When this happens I have to be really really careful and wear a brace, etc. Well in the process of losing weight I came to actually enjoy jogging on my treadmill. Shocking for a girl who had bad knees and a history of asthma. But I worked my way up till I could jog. Tonight I walked on my treadmill. It seemed to take forever. It seemed more natural to keep increasing the speed, but it wouldn’t have been healthy. I have to retrain the muscles of my knee to walk before I can jog again. As I was walking it came to me how often we refer to the life of a Christian as a “Christian walk.”

We often hold up those who “walk with God” as being saints and patriarchs… men and women to be used as life models. Enoch walked so close to God that he was taken to heaven without seeing death. We are considered blessed when we walk “not in the counsel of the ungodly”(Ps 1:1). We are commanded to walk by faith. We will “hear a word behind you, saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it.’” (Isaiah 30:21) So what is it about this lifestyle that deems it a walk?

A walk is deliberate. If you have ever watched children and teachers in the hallway of a school, the teacher is not admonishing the children to run but to walk. To slow down seems to be something that is against human nature (to a point). For some of us it seems that the busier we are the more people seem to think we can do. But the more we cram into our day the more we are likely to “run” around.  To walk with God requires a deliberate action on our part to slow down our pace.

If you have ever tried to carry on a conversation with someone while jogging? It gets more difficult the longer you keep the pace or the faster the pace gets. When we are running around in our  daily life it can be hard to truly have a conversation with Our Father. That He would want that conversation with us should be enough to stop us in our tracks let alone slow us to a walk. As we take the time to have a deliberate relationship with Him, He is able to point out His effects on our lives (a beautiful sunrise on a morning you had to get up early, a mysterious gift on a day when you need to feel the love of a friend, someone stopping you to give a compliment on something that you thought no one would notice). He is able to do so much more for us when take the time to cultivate that loving Father/ Child relationship that He is offering us.

Instead of resenting the seeming endless slow pace, let’s rejoice in possibility of time spent with the God, who created the universe, who waits patiently for us to spend one-on-one time with Him.