Previous Challenge Entry (Level 2 – Intermediate)
Topic: Walk (07/20/06)
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TITLE: Just Keep Walking | Previous Challenge Entry
By Chuck Myers
07/27/06 -
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“Hey, Mr. Grumpy Gills,” she begins, “when life gets you down, you know what you gotta do?”
Marlin isn’t buying it. “What cha gotta do?”
“Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming...”
That’s an interesting, and potentially philosophically deep, answer. For us more land-bound creatures that might easily be translated, “Just keep walking, walking, walking...”
* * *
The word “walk” has got to be one of the most interesting ones in the English language. It implies so many things. To a one year old child it means independence. To a person with a spinal injury it means freedom. To a senior citizen it might mean a continuation of a higher quality of life. To an athlete finishing a hard workout it might mean bone level weariness. As a young high school pupil it meant boredom to me. My motto was, “Why walk when you can run?” Thirty years later things have changed.
Walking now indicates comfort, ease, relaxation, and a lack of pain in the knees.
But what does “walk” mean for the believer? Does it speak to the thrill of one’s first steps, like that of a young child; or does it indicate relaxed effort like that of the well-trained athlete?
John 12:35 (NKJV) says, “Then Jesus said to them... “Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you; he who walks in darkness does not know where he is going.” So walking would seem to be a good thing.
But Hebrews 12:1 (NKJV) tells us, “...let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus...” So maybe walking isn’t such a good thing after-all.
I also found something else. The word “walk” is used sixty times in the New King James Version and it is overwhelmingly positive. Jesus made the lame walk, we are to “walk by faith”, we are told to “walk in newness of life”, “walk properly”, and many more.
Thayer’s Greek Definitions says that the word “walk” means, “to make one’s way, progress; to make due use of opportunities” and that got me to thinking. Sure there’s a time for running in the Christian life, but there’s also a need to walk.
A number of years ago a couple of my - then - young boys got to go hiking with their grandpa and several cousins. We started our hike in a beautiful little valley, and the boys ran from one interesting sight to the next. They ran yelling and laughing for quite some time until the trail changed and we began steeply climbing to get out of the valley. Before long the running was forgotten. The remainder of the hike was simply walking ... and walking ... and walking.
Oh how like our own Christian life that walk was. It’s fun to run, it’s exciting to race from one thing to another; but a majority of the Christian walk is simply progressing from one opportunity to the next. When we get tired, we just keep walking. When we don’t feel like running, we can still walk. When the trail is steeply uphill we can make it to the top one step at a time.
“A man can walk down a horse.” Louis L’Amour said, and I suppose he was right; but one thing I know - a Christian can walk down a lifetime of opportunities if we just keep putting one foot ahead of the other. The Christian life is all about “just, keep walking”.
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