The Long Walk Home
I have always loved taking long walks, and now that we have Miles it is something I really enjoy doing with him. He loves it too for the most part, but his little two year old legs have a hard time keeping up sometimes and he gets tired, so when he does he simply reaches his hands up to gesture that he wants me to pick him up so that I can carry him the rest of the way.
I could stand to learn a lot from my son…
I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior when I was five years old, so for 32 years I have been “walking with The Lord”, as they say. But what does that really mean? Like, where are we walking to, and for how long? And how should we walk? Side-by-side? Hand-in-hand? One proceeding the other? Or, one carrying the other as I described I do with Miles from time to time?
Well, the truth is as believers we are walking with Jesus all the way to Heaven. He is walking us there day in and day out as we navigate the various experiences that life presents to us. And I believe the season we find ourselves in has a direct effect on how we engage Him as we take that long walk home.
“BUT THOSE WHO HOPE IN THE LORD WILL RENEW THEIR STRENGTH. THEY WILL SOAR ON WINGS LIKE EAGLES; THEY WILL RUN AND NOT GROW WEARY, THEY WILL WALK AND NOT BE FAINT”
For example, in seasons of great joy and overflowing of blessings we may feel His presence so closely, we may hear Him so clearly - where we are walking with Him hand-in-hand and right beside Him. During seasons of preparation, He may be walking just ahead of us to clear the way for that new route He is taking us down. But what about the seasons of great trial and suffering when we are spent, exhausted and ready to give up? Where is He then, we often wonder - or at least I definitely have. But a recent walk with my son revealed the answer - He is right there waiting for us to ask Him to pick us up and carry us the rest of the way. But how do we do that tangibly? By admitting that we are tired, that we cannot continue to walk within our own strength, that we need His help, His strength, and His refuge - in essence we must humble ourselves. James 4:10 says: “Humble yourselves in the sight of The Lord and He will lift you up,” and that is about as literal as it can get. Humbling ourselves to The Father activates His power over us in and through our suffering, and He in turn will lift us up to carry us to victory.
You know what else I realized during that walk with my baby? That when I am carrying him he is at the same eye-level that I am, which means that he can see the very same things that I can. Isn’t that what begins to happen when we allow The Lord to lift us up? As we allow Him to carry us, and as we find our rest in Jesus, we begin to see our situation from an eternal perspective.
So when you find yourself fatigued from the walk, and endurance seems impossible, lift your hands to Heaven and cry out to “Abba, Father” - He is our very present help in the time of need.
