Love Story
August 2008
I cringed when I saw the stairs in the vacation house where friends and I were going to stay. The steps accommodated only a child-sized foot, so I’d have to do a balancing act all the way up. Ever since an attack of vertigo, I’d avoided precipitous inclines. But the second floor was where the sleeping room was. And the only way up was up. Would I remain a prisoner of fear or climb in spite of it?
Imagine that you are confronted with a fearful climb. That happened to me again recently during a trip to Israel at archaeological sites. Imagine that your balance is easily thrown off the way mine is.
Pray meditatively. You’d learn pretty quickly not to look at the whole, threatening journey ahead of you. Instead, you’d trust God for the step in front of you. And then the next. “Commit your way to the Lord,” King David advised in Psalm 37:5. That is, “roll it over on the Lord.” moment by moment, step by step. (1)
Although during my climbs in Israel, the sun beat down and I was constantly thirsty, God taught me that, no matter the challenge, I was never alone. Always, He provided a friend’s helping hand. Victory was at the top, and by His grace I would climb there.
The only way to do that, however, was to take the risk and do the work.
Practice loving Him back. I would be loving God back only if I trusted Him for each leg of my journey. As I eyed both the stairs in that house and the sites in Israel, I suddenly wanted to climb. Even if I stumbled, I wouldn’t fall because God would uphold me with his hand.
Decisively, I set my foot on the first step and began my way to the top.
(1) Nelson’s Study Bible
Archives
July 2008
June 2008
May 2008
April 2008
March 2008
February 2008
January 2008
December 2007
November 2007
October 2007
September 2007
|
