During many of my years in grade school and high school I walked to and from school every day. It was never much more than a mile, but it was good for me, even if I didn't always think so.
During the summer between my freshman and sophomore years at Central Christian College I often walked to work, traveling from the south end of Morley Street to the North end, about 5 miles one way.
I recently bought a Fitbit. It tracks my heart rate, something I'm much more motivated to do since my heart attack a few months ago.
It also tells me I average a little under two miles walking each day. None of those miles come from walking any great distance along streets or on a track. My bad knee has severely limited my walking, to the point where I need a cane just to make it around Walmart for 20 minutes. My daily miles are mostly made up of walking around my house, my office building, and the grocery store.
And yet I still somehow manage a couple miles each day. That's around 4,200 footsteps each day, according to the Fitbit.
When I first saw the number of miles and footsteps I'm walking each day, I was sure the Fitbit was over-counting. It needs adjustment or calibration or maybe a trash can.
Then I realized that daily life for most people is made up of walking, most of it short distances, just in the course of normal activities.
I've only been up for about 90 minutes this morning. Most of that has been standing still at the sink or in the shower, standing at the kitchen stove preparing my breakfast and then sitting to eat, followed by the past 20-25 minutes sitting at this computer, writing this blog post.
And yet somehow I've accumulated 488 steps already today.
Walking is what we do. It's daily life.
Whether your day is spent charging around like the Energizer Bunny doing housework (like my wife) or sitting at a desk in an office for 8 hours, you're still racking up the walking steps. Your feet are driven along by your focus on all the things you do in your daily life, from the mundane (stepping into the bathroom to brush your teeth) to the minutiae of work life (walking from your desk to the copier and back), from the industrious (changing the linens on the bed) to the athletic (exercising on the elliptical at the gym).
Each of us walks a different path than everyone else around us, based on the choices we've made about our lives, our priorities, and our goals.
Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my pathMy Fitbit vibrates on my wrist at 10 minutes before each hour, reminding me I still have steps to go to achieve the goal of 250 steps per hour. I'm learning to use that as a guide to step away from desk and walk around for a bit. I'm never again going to be a long-distance walker, let alone a jogger or runner. But with a little more attentiveness to the goal, I can become a healthier walker.
Psalm 119:105
I also want to learn to be a more intentional walker in my spiritual life.
This past year has taught me I no longer have the physical capability of doing many of the soul-stretching ministries I used to do. We quit the prison ministry last June because we no longer had the physical endurance to match our spiritual ambitions. Then a heart attack and other health problems slowed us down even more.
I spent the final few months of the past year in a spiritual and physical funk, depressed about getting old and railing against these newfound limitations. No matter how hard I kicked against the restraints, I was getting nowhere.
My spiritual walk had become a spiritual sit-and-be-frustrated.
With the dawn of the new year, I decided to intentionally set aside that self-defeating habit in favor of a more productive habit.
I'm discovering the key to that readjustment is to refocus on the Word. I'm spending more time rereading the scriptures that have become so familiar to me over the years. Through them, God is guiding me in new directions for my spiritual walk.
Are you stumbling in your walk through life? Get back into God's Word and let him shine a new light on your path.
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