Power Walking

God knows what is good for us.

We can trust this: Our Creator knows the best prescription for the health of His Creation.

In fact, His Word offers a complete manual for our health

revealing that Truly becoming healthy

means becoming healed

means becoming whole

means becoming holy.

Holy. United with God's Whole Being.

While people loudly debate over definitions of what being "healthy" really is, our God quietly seeks our holiness.

While folks flex and bend and compare muscle growth and heart rates,

our God simply beckons our bending toward Him,

our growing closer to His heart.

While everybody clocks hours and logs times in training manuals,

our God patiently awaits the Body of Christ (us)

to be in His Presence in the present,

offering time daily to the Maker of Time.

But God may be coaching us to engage in one activity in particular.

Walking.

Because our all-knowing God is also an expert in behavioral activation.

God knows...action precedes emotion.

We can't sit around and wait for motivation before we take a step to feel better. God's "Just Do It" phrase urges us: Walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. Galations 5:16-17

We can't wait until we can safely or clearly see what is up ahead, as frightening as that might be. God requires us to: Walk by faith, not by sight. 2 Cor 5:7

And we certainly can't do this alone. God reassures us: Let the one who walks in the dark, who has no light, trust in the name of the Lord and rely on their God. Isaiah 50:10

During our most difficult moments, frankly, God reminds us that we can't remain "stuck" and that even though we walk through the darkest valley, we will fear no evil, for God is with us; His rod and His staff comfort us. Psalm 23:4

We must be a people walking. The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned. Isaiah 9:2. It's the only way: in order to see the light dawning, we have to move, take steps, press ahead, and keep our eyes wide open...looking for the light we know will be there.

God knows that "activating" literally changes our minds and can make us feel better. Walking, or moving forward, produces good chemistry in the brain which perpetuates momentum. You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand. Psalm 16:11

God knows that "activating" necessarily gets us out of the dark and into more situations that can give us "light" in positive experiences. Those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy. Those who go out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with them. Psalm 126:5-6

Walking by faith...

Even when we don't feel like it...

Especially when we don't feel like it.

Walking to keep on moving...

Even when we're convinced we can't.

Especially when we're convinced that we can't!

Our Creator commands us to walk.

Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?” “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. John 5:1-9

We need to hear this Truth in Love, this Love speaking Truth.

We need to hear Jesus being both gentle and firm. "Walk. Move toward Me. Come into the Light. Take up your excuses, and walk."

We need to hear this simple directive in the midst of our blindness, our lameness, our paralysis, our fear.

We need to gather up our sickness, our sadness, our excuses...

and walk.

And lo and behold...even before we take a step...we are cured.

God loves us so much that He Cures us just for responding to Him.

God Cures us just for acknowledging Him.

When we acknowledge the Healer, we are Cured.

When we acknowledge the Healer, we actually can walk.

And various translations of God's Word reveal that "walk" can be interchanged for another word.

"Live."

LIVE! The Savior reminds us that He died in order for us to claim this gift of Life: I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. John 10:10.

Live. Move forward. Keep going.

And a poem sent to me one day from my own sweet

Mother-Encourager speaks volumes of wisdom in simplicity:

Keep A-Goin'!

If you strike a thorn or rose, Keep a-goin'! If it hails, or if it snows, Keep a-goin! 'Taint no use to sit an' whine, When the fish ain't on yer line; Bait yer hook an' keep a-tryin'— Keep a-goin'! When the weather kills yer crop, Keep a-goin'! When you tumble from the top, Keep a-goin'! S'pose you're out of every dime, Bein' so ain't any crime; Tell the world you're feelin' prime— Keep a-goin'! When it looks like all is up, Keep a-goin'! Drain the sweetness from the cup, Keep a-goin'! See the wild birds on the wing, Hear the bells that sweetly ring, When you feel like sighin' sing— Keep a-goin'!

Frank Lebby Stanton, Georgia's first Poet Laureate, born in 1857 in Atlanta, GA.

Surely we can imagine God speaking it over and over:

"Keep a-goin'!"