Anatomy of the Journey – Walking

Greetings Dear Reader,

In order to go anywhere one must journey.  Journeying implies movement.  One must travel.  It is part of the plan that leaves us with no choice.  The destination is chosen for us.  The path is different for everyone.  The walking is something we control.  The walking is something we choose.  The path will move us along but we choose the pace and how we walk.

I have taken leisurely journeys and I have had hurried travel.  This journey requires a measure of alacrity but leaves room to enjoy things along the way.  The must is the walking.  As I walk I have to build some things into the journey.  As I walk there are things I must be vigilant concerning.

I must keep my focus on the destination.  Even though there is time for leisure and rest along the way I have someplace to be and that place is where I will find true rest.  How I get there matters.  How I walk matters too.  I cannot see the end of the path.  I cannot see the clearing that opens up to me as I take that last step.  I cannot even see too far up the path. 

Ichetucknee Springs

When I drove from my home in Georgia to a vacation in Florida the first time, I did not doubt that Florida or my destination was there.  I did not ask along the way if Ichetucknee Springs really existed.  I did not have the internet to give a map.  I just had the word of a guide and friend who had been there before.  I had fellow travelers who believed we were going there.  I made the journey by faith. 

In truth we make every journey by faith.  We trust that this path leads to this place.  God requires that we walk by faith in our journey to him.  I am not sure why he does this but I cannot change it so I do it.  When we try to reason our way to God the path and the journey become more difficult.  If I do not walk the path by faith, believing that I am headed somewhere and that the somewhere, who is a someone matters the journey becomes very difficult.

People reason all kinds of ways to avoid the destination.  They refuse to walk unless they are given certain guarantees.  Often the very guarantees they demand violate the requirement to walk by faith.  If I demand to know what is over the next hill or proof that the destination exists I cannot walk in faith.  Since faith is a requirement of the journey; of the walking, then I cannot demand things of God that make faith unnecessary.

No matter how difficult the path seems at the moment I do not walk alone.  I have a guide in Christ through that same faith.  I have wonders to view along the way.  There are waysides to give me respite as I journey.  There are fellow travelers who will aide our journey.  The only thing we really control is the actual walk.  One must walk to journey.

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store."