After The Work

^{I took a break from writing during the month of February, did some personal work and inventory of the past few years. Apologies for not letting everyone know. I will also not be posting every day for a time, so my posts will likely be once or twice a week, yielding a longer format per post. Hope you all are blessed and thriving!}

Ever been on a long hike? They often start with spirit, inspired by the vistas or the company you walk with. Then comes a time where there is more looking at where you are walking and less at the trees or hills around you. Eventually, and especially, if you are walking uphill your focus changes into every step place in front of you as your muscles grow rubbery and your steps less sure.

Climbing up a mountain trail can be especially tasking on your stamina, the air gets thinner leaving each breath less rich in precious oxygen. Sometimes you may put your hand on your knee to assist your muscles to push. Loose rocks become the bane of your existence. The phrase “one foot in front of the other” becomes a mantra as you breath in and out in rhythm. Conversation ceases until you reach the next rest point unless you look back and offer words of encouragement.

The reward for your efforts are the beautiful views and the accomplishment you have earned for your trouble. Some views are never given, only earned by those willing to put in the work and discipline. Standing upon the summit, looking upon the cascading mountains before you knowing few have stood where you have stood. There is a reverence to the moment–what you have sacrificed was worth the effort and those who journeyed with you are indeed companions bonded by the journey.

Life is in reality a journey taken one foot in front of the other. Day after day we walk. We are given the moment, what we do with it is a profound investment in what you will become. Will you waste your moments with fear? Will we entertain ourselves into numb apathy? What about spending all your moments filling them with excuses and doubts? We spend all that energy walking in circles instead of forward, allowing the committee of doubters and worriers to reign over your moments.

Sometimes our day to day, one step at a time, journey can be filled with pain. We may not be young anymore, our bodies voicing it’s protest louder and louder with each step. We may be holding onto pain from days long past, not knowing how to put that burden down. We carry forward into exhaustion and we stop, stuck in a moment long gone.

Are your moments filled with worry, fear, or care for the future events not walked into yet? Our imaginations go wild creating shaky steps into futures we fear, our trepidations becoming self-fulfilling prophesies. Worry constricts our breath and is the doom of a journeyer long before the air grows thin. It is easier, it seems to imagine a future that calls for every possibility we can imagine to be accounted for.

It is exhausting to anticipate every root that may cause us to trip, every loose rock that may give out, every branch that can smack us in the head. Soon we imagine ourselves falling down the mountain, taking us out of our moment to moment steps, making it more and more likely we will fall. What we are not doing is living in the moment given to us, free of charge, exchanging it for problems that do not pay rent in our minds.

One foot in front of the next calls us to examine our steps, where we step, our breath, our companions, our bodies, our soul. When the journey is tough, in the moment we can count the reasons soberly why we are walking and how disappointed we will be if we stop. We might miss out on the vistas waiting to be earned, places stood by few before. Why live a life dragging the past into your walk? Is a life well lived if we always are afraid of days to come?

You were put on this journey for a reason. Providence has not forgotten you nor left you without purpose. We will not witness our reward if we do not walk, one step in front of the next. We may stumble, we may even fall. You will not make that mistake again, or perhaps you needed to lay down for a while. There is no wasted work in God’s economy, only steps taken and lessons learned along the way.

The trick? It is right in front of you. It is the mundane of life peppered by moments of spice. It is what you need to do next, great and small. It is washing the dishes and taking out the trash. That big meeting tomorrow will come tomorrow, after you do all the little things in between. You will be ready if you spend your steps today preparing and caring. Eat your dinner, hug your loved-one, pet your dog, go to bed. Tomorrow’s steps will be taken tomorrow, often much easier than we anticipate.

Whatever you do, do not give up the journey until it is your time to finally let go of this world. Early exits off the mountain are always tragedies, tears mingling down the trail like snow melt. Don’t say goodbye before your time–your footprints will be missed by more than you know. Sometimes those on the Path need another to walk beside them for a time. No shame in learning new steps and new ways to take your time. There is no standard pace or nor is it a race.

There are even times you are Carried by the Most High, the Pioneer and Perfecter, the One who has walked before you. He blazed the trail, his steps were perfect and true. Every journey will feature a time your footsteps will disappear and sandal foot prints will take their place. Every person needs to be carried now and then. No shame in needing a Savior to carry you through those sections of the trail that are impassible by normal means. You will be walking again soon when it is safe and you are ready. Catch your breath and put one foot in front of the other. Glory awaits you on the other side.