Step by Step

When I was younger, I was convinced that I taught a friend of the family how to walk. I’m not completely sure of the veracity of my recollection; now that I’m older I know that walking is generally not something that is just accomplished in one afternoon,  but from my childlike perspective, I was the one responsible for the fact that this kid was now mobile.

What I learned from this little coaching session, is that walking is not something that happens rapidly, and if you really think about it, we don’t actually teach kids to walk. Instead, what we teach them is to take one step, and then another, without losing their balance and falling down. It’s only when they put a series of these steps together that they are truly walking. Our outcome though, is just one step, and then the next.

This lesson we learned as children is often forgotten by the time that we’re adults. When we’re looking towards the next thing in life, we want the complete path mapped out for us. We’re not worried so much about the next step as we are about the series of steps five miles down the road. We neglect to remember that the only way we get five miles down the road, is to first take the step that’s right in front of us.

The truly wonderful thing, however, is that the God we serve is taking each step with us. Just like a parent holds the child’s hands as they first began to walk, so our Father is walking right beside us as we seek to do His will. He’s not waiting for us five miles down the road at our purposed destination; He’s holding us as we trip over the rock, as we veer off the path, and as we stub our toes. Every step we walk, we walk with Him.

As an old songsays:

Step by step He leads me,

And I will follow Him all of my days.

Each step.

One foot after the other.

With Him by our side.

Until we’re Home.

 

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No Laughing Matter

When I was in elementary school, one evening I told my sister that we were all going to get ice cream.

The only problem with this statement was that my parents had no intention of serving us ice cream on that night.

When the truth was discovered, and I quickly explaining that I was only joking, my dad marched me into my parents’ room, placed me on the bed, and told me not to come out until I had memorized Proverbs 26:18-19 which states:

Like a madman who throws firebrands, arrows, and death is the man who deceives his neighbor and says “I was only joking.” (NKJ)

Now at that age, I didn’t know what firebrands were, and to be honest, I’m not sure I still do, but the list sounded bad.  I hadn’t equated my deception with death and destruction, but Scripture did. And although my father could have punished me in a variety of ways, this way proved the most effective because years later I still remember those verses when I am tempted to deceive someone and then pass it off as a joke.

The interesting part of all this, is that it wasn’t like my dad was a serious stick in the mud. After all, this was the man who kept a realistic-looking rubber egg in the refrigerator and then, as an initiation to our home, would throw it at guests with a shout of “Catch!” As the unsuspecting visitor would quickly scurry to save what they thought was an egg, my dad would smile and then laugh. My dad loved and appreciated humor.

However, what my dad knew was that beside the momentary panic, there was no lasting effects of the rubber egg prank. After all, the worse thing that could happen is that, had it been a real egg, it would have been splattered in his own home. But so many times, we purposefully cause lasting harm to people with our words or actions, and then indifferently pass it off as a joke. We ridicule with sarcasm and then expect the other person to laugh. We marginalize people who take things too seriously, and neglect to realize that if we taking nothing seriously, then nothing is sacred. And if we act as if nothing is sacred, then what as Christians, do we truly believe?

After all, when a little girl thinks she’s getting ice cream, and then finds out it was nothing but a misguided joke, that’s no laughing matter.

Neither is it when we compromise our representation of Christ for the sake of a few laughs.

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