I have an app on my phone which logs my daily steps – and my food intake and weight if I desire to admit those components. On this first morning of this new year, I have walked three thousand steps. Walked the dog around the block. Brought him home and walked again by myself. Three thousand steps. Huh.
It is this day, this first day of a new year, that corners me to look back, take stock, and answer for a year’s worth of living. A year’s worth of steps. Now if I am satisfied, or at least comfortable, with the way those steps were logged, I can breathe a sigh of gratefulness – or relief – and say, “Thank you, Lord, for another year of life”. If, however, I carry regret or frustration into this new year, I then find myself doing that uncomfortable dance step that promises, “Ah, Lord, this year I’ll try harder”. Either way, it feels like a lot of self-effort that is tricky whichever way it lands at the end of one year and the first day of the new. Huh.
So what’s it going to be, Pam? Relief or Regret? How about neither. What if I stop trying so hard to log perfect steps and long more for steps that are shared along side my gracious Lord who has offered to faithfully share my journey from the moment it began? Steps that are in synch. Steps that share the smooth path and the treacherous terrain. Steps accompanied by hilarity and steps accompanied by heartache. Steps that are irresistibly drawn to the light of His face. “Just walk with Me, Pam. Walk worthy of the calling that I have so perfectly formed you for.” Huh.
This is not new to me. I have walked with Jesus for a very long time. He has faithfully led me. He has matched my stride. Nudged me forward. Held me back. Carried my weary body and heart. He continues, and will continue, until He completes what He began in me all those years ago. And for this I am desperately grateful. But sometimes, after all this time, I still get caught up in the dizzying lie that says, “It’s all up to me to pull this life off, and I better do it well. When I look back on a year’s worth of living, it better look good”. But on this morning, this first morning, these first 3000 steps, what if the invitation is really a bit more gracious? What if I really can embrace the command that sang and danced through my mind and heart as I logged those first pristine 3000 steps on this morning one? Huh….
“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Micah 6:8
Echoes of Grace 