Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: Walk (07/20/06)
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TITLE: Walking the walk (ii) | Previous Challenge Entry
By Carol Maresca
07/26/06 -
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A friend came to me one day, and we started talking about our faith. She was on fire. She talked about the path and the walk, and light slowly filtered in and I knew what she was talking about. I also knew that I didn’t have it. I wasn’t a bad person; mostly anyone who knew me would say I was really “nice”, but I wasn’t walking in faith or for Jesus or any of that. In Paul’s epistle to the Galatians, he tells them to “walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh”. (Galatians 5:16*)
As I took Bible studies and learned to read and question, things became much clearer for me but there was still something missing. If you had asked me at that time, did I love Jesus and was I doing my very best for Him? I would have given you a resounding “Yes” and never told you about the niggling doubt I had in my heart.
I went away on a retreat, which was wonderful. Many described it as a mountaintop experience. It was indeed. I for one did not want to come down from the mountain and go back to life. I wanted to stay and learn and pray and sing and fellowship with other Christians.
The world does not want us to stay on the mountaintop – it wants us down in the valley where the boulders and rocks along the road seem insurmountable at times. I came back from my retreat and promptly deflated. I tried to sing my worship songs to the cat but he ran away. I knew that once again, there was something not right but just what it was, I didn’t know.
I was watching Christian television later that week and I heard Dr. Charles Stanley preach a sermon on forgiveness. Suddenly I felt like I had heart burn. When my husband left for work the next morning, I knelt down by the side of my bed and started talking, just talking to my Lord.
I told him all of the stupid things I’ve done and the poor choices I’d made and the people I had hurt – I didn’t know how to fix it; I couldn’t fix it now – my sorrow just flowed on like a river, I was so very sorry. There was no way to make any kind of retribution or payment for the pain, and by now I was weeping tears that had been damned up in my soul for a long time.
As I knelt there berating myself, the Lord asked me to open my eyes and I saw three crosses on a small desolate hill. I heard Him say to me “If I forgave them, why wouldn’t I forgive you child?” At that moment, I was His child, washed clean. I could feel the warmth of His love and forgiveness wash over me.
I knew when it was all over and I opened my eyes to behold my usual bedroom with the dresser in place and the windows open, that I had done business with God. Now I could in all good faith “Walk the walk” for Him who walked to His death for me, so I could live forever.
He never said this journey on earth would be a “walk in the park”; oh, it is sometimes when the Lord comes near and you sense it. For the most part, it is uphill and quite rocky. Sometimes I’ve slid down a hill into a gully and had to climb out and start again, but I see His face and He’s almost smiling, reaching His hand out saying “I am the light of the world; he who follows Me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of life.” (John 8:12*)
AMEN! I SAY AGAIN AMEN!
*All quotations from the New American Standard version, THE OPEN BIBLE, Expanded Edition
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