Heart Tracks - The Stroll

"My soul follows hard after You; Your right hand upholds me." Psalm 63:8

If it is your profession and confession to be a "follower of Christ," a "believer," most likely you would describe your relationship with Him as a journey, a walk. So here's a question for each of us; is our walk a leisurely stroll, or a journey of determined purpose?

The word stroll is described as a "leisurely walk." The scene that comes before my mind's eye is to go along focused on nothing much in particular, and easily distracted by one scene after another along the side of the road. We're very much aware of what's around us, and ever more oblivious to what's before us. When we attach that reality to the meaning of Psalm 63:8, it's small wonder that our journey is marked by, at best, constant side trips from the path, to at worst, the shipwreck of our faith. Too few of us know the reality of what it is to "follow hard after Him."

Other translations of this verse render it as "following close behind Him," which, while not bad, I think fall short of the meaning of "following hard" behind Him. To me, following hard gives the picture of being so pressed into Him that we cannot be distinguished from Him. To an onlooker, it would look like one person. It is impossible to stroll along with Jesus. To walk with Jesus is to walk with purpose. Not our purpose, but His. To walk with Jesus is to be completely aware of not only what is right before us, but what is ahead of us. To where we are going, no matter how far off that may appear to be. He may have shared only a small part of where that destination may be, but He shares enough so that the vision of it is always before us, and the roadside "attractions" that are almost always distractions intent upon getting our eyes off of first, Christ Himselt, and then, to where He's taking us. Onto what will ultimately lead us away.

Some may read this and see that "vision" only in terms of what He wants to do with us in this temporal realm. He does have purpose for us here, but as the Word says, our lives are but a breath, and we were not made for this realm, but His; which is eternity. C.S. Lewis said that if we walk through this life with the sense that there is something missing in this world, than perhaps we need to realize we were not made for it, but for another. That "other" is His eternal Kingdom, and that is the destination to which He leads each of us that are His. Here's the joy, while we journey to all His Kingdom's fullness, we can do so with all the Kingdom fullness available to us now. It is the enemy's purpose to distract us from that destination, and the joy of the journey right now. And he most often does so with things that look good, even are good, but are not Him, not His best. Those who only stroll with Him are always prey to falling far behind, or off the path altogether. Only those determined to follow hard after Him will experience His Life here, and it's fullness in eternity.

I remember an old Family Circus cartoon strip where Billy, the oldest son, is sent by his mother on an errand only a few houses away. The cartoon showed his steps and what should have been a short journey was made a long one because of all the side stops he made along the way. How much like that does our "walk" look to Him? Are we on a stroll, or a walk of Life? Are our eyes fixed on Him, or are they captivated by all the enemy's "roadside attractions?" Do those observing our lives see us being one, fused with Him, or lagging behind, enthralled by everything but Him? How like Billy are you and I?

Blessings,
Pastor O