A STEADY WALK

Every person, physically capable of doing so, walks. A person’s walk can be as unique as his laugh or voice or sneeze. Young “Jocks” swagger or strut, teenage girls saunter, older women mince along in staccato steps, briskly, and old men shuffle. Eight year old girls and ten year old boys have a style of their own, characterized by numerous detours and much sidewalk scuffing; adults call it dawdling.

Eph. 4:1 states in part, "that you walk [lead a life] worthy of the [divine] calling to which you have been called...". [AMP.] In my Bible, penned in the margin, is the lofty thought, "a walk is steady."

When my adult son was ten years old, he was a "string bean" with hands and feet too large for his lean frame. It seemed he was always in trouble for bumping, tripping, falling, or dropping. Praise God for wise teachers ... one encouraged me by saying, "Steve doesn't have any trouble he won't outgrow. He'll get all his parts going the same direction. It just takes time."

Even after all these years with the Lord, my tenth rebirth date being more than three decades ago, I sometimes still wonder when all my parts will go the same direction ... when I won't have to flinch when I see the words "a walk is steady."

Oh, how I love my Lord. My heart yearns for more closeness with Him. My heart is in the right place.

But -- this wife, mother of two/ grandmother of six, chauffeur, missionary-oriented [locally, at this time], a "goer and doer" personality ...

...sometimes finds her feet tangled, trying to be all things to all people;

...sometimes cries in tiredness and frustration;

...sometimes whispers a sleepy "I love you" to Jesus as another hectic, wearing and weary day ends.

The malady of our age, our culture, our society? Too much activity crammed into too little time, and even understanding that situation, the realization that there are no easy answers. Most activities are not options, and even those that are, appear to somehow be God- directed.

So -- I gallop jerkily along, occasionally coming to a screeching halt, tripping over gravel in the road, definitely not walking in a solid fashion, and definitely not steady.

But God loves me anyhow. He loves me when I over-book my calendar ... and when I use my few times of leisure inappropriately (reading a casually-oriented book, hanging out on my computer, or staring off into space) ... when I am unfaithful in my plans to follow through, and have to adjust and readjust my schedule and still hope I come out looking "good"... and when I open the Word to read it, and fall asleep half way through the intended scriptures.

Why am I sharing this "negative confession?" Because I am not alone. In our everyday world, at the church or a grocery store or a mall, there are others who have the same awkward gait ... who long to be that fine-tuned specimen of Christian maturity and "walk steady."

And I'm sharing this because of our common ground. The ground of God's love -- our joy, hope and crown. He knows our hearts, and, in spite of our busyness, He knows we love Him.

My heart's desire: that the day will come when my walk is firm, graceful, and faithfully steady.