Learning to Walk

Think about the different times in your life you’ve had to learn to walk. First as a baby, you took those first few precarious steps. You probably didn’t recognize it as a major milestone, but your family certainly did. As you gained skill, you wanted to jump up on every curb you saw and balance yourself as you walked along. Then later, at a park or in the school gym, you attempted the balance bar, raised a foot or two off the surface. What an adventure learning to walk is!

But that’s not all. There is learning to walk in cowboy/cowgirl boots or as a young lady in her first high heels. You may choose rollerblades, snowshoes or skis, or mountain climbing boots and learn a new gait. At some point, you might even have to use crutches temporarily! All of these experiences require learning to walk in a new way.

We call the Christian life a “walk,” first of all, because it is a continuing process. No less important, though, is the fact that it has to be learned, more or less continually throughout life. As a young person, I marveled at the stories of men and women like George Müeller who managed orphanages in England, Amy Carmichael whose mission was to rescue young girls of India from forced prostitution, and many other evangelists, teachers, and missionaries. A common description of them was that they were “living by faith,” that is, with little or no visible means of support.

It is true that these are great examples of faith, and it’s good to be inspired and challenged by their lives. But that does not make inferior the faith of ordinary people who go every day to a job in the office or classroom or factory. The Apostle Paul writes, “Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, ‘The righteous will live by faith.’ " (Galatians 3:11) It takes faith to accept the reality of God’s unseen Kingdom and venture the first few steps in an unfamiliar position. It takes faith to balance oneself on a narrow ledge of life circumstances. It takes faith to attempt things where one could take a hard fall. It takes faith to try something new or believe something new or to learn to act and react in a new way.

Ordinary people living ordinary lives are learning to walk by faith too!

MaryMartha
(All rights reserved)

Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright©1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Email: mrymrtha@gmail.com