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Topic: Walk (07/20/06)
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TITLE: These Boots Are Made For Walking | Previous Challenge Entry
By Paul Meier
07/26/06 -
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The first forty-seven years of my life felt like I was one of a million buffalo stampeding on six inbound lanes into Atlanta. Somewhere ahead in the din there was an image of the American dream that we all were conditioned to want. Television commercials promised it. Capitalism expected us to seek it. Seminars and motivational tapes told us how a positive mental attitude, goal setting, and perseverance would bring us the life of our dreams.
Goals were to be set at one, five, and ten year intervals. Without a target to shoot for, how would we know if we ever hit it? We lapped it up like a puppies at a bowl of ice cream. Not surprisingly, the methods fed the madness. Many achieved an accumulation of stuff, but at the expense of true riches.
As I was swept along with others in a current as strong as the Mississippi River at flood stage, a diversion carried me into a backwater space of the river. I had time to say ‘yes’ to meeting weekly with a group of Christian businessmen committed to a two year Bible study. As I invested time in spiritual growth, the lake of false promises of the world began to dry up.
Trying to lasso the dreams of tomorrow grew to be a noose that strangled the life out of the present day. Instead of considering a movie with my wife or helping my kids blow bubbles in the yard as gifts from God, they had become obstacles to circumvent as I worked for the better life.
Like an infant taking its first steps, I tried to free myself from a world that wanted to hold me to the ground. As the Spirit gave me strength, I rose above it, supported by my Christian friends. They helped me take my focus off the future. I began to see the gifts God was placing in my immediate path.
Yet taking one or two steps with the help of others was easy compared to going it alone. Often the lamp of the word of God illuminates the path just far enough ahead to take one step at a time. Slippery rocks can dampen the spirits of overanxious fishermen.
A final destination is seldom clear when God is leading the way. This was a complete turnaround from how I had been living my life. Teaching a race horse to walk when it is bred to cross a finish line takes the patience of a tree farmer. Even so, God waits for mustard seeds to mature until they can support others.
Trust grows one step at a time. God speaks in stillness, not on the race track of the agenda-driven life. One pearl preserved from the past was the practice of persistence. If one’s hope is growth in faith through a personal relationship with God, asking in unceasing prayer, seeking Him daily in Scripture, and knocking at the door of the body of Christ will bring us the Desire of our hearts.
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