Catalyst: The Walk

...

Rode through the Palouse today.

Joyride in my new boots. 

Needtobreathe kept my ears company.

So wonderful.

...

The Walk. 

That was the theme of Resonate's Fall retreat this year.

Our relationship with Jesus is like taking a walk.

Now I've heard this before, but many ideas were very new this weekend. 

Our walk with Jesus is not about having a destination.

We should be so infatuated and in love with God that we are in love with being with him, not worried about actually getting somewhere.

Could you imagine walking with a significant other and constantly asking them,"Where are we going? How much longer? Do we turn left here? Where are we going?"

That's like us when we're constantly asking God questions about the destination,"Who will I marry? What should I major in? Did I ask who I'm going to marry already?" lol.

It's a journey of sanctification that does not have a destination. 

You can't peak with your relationship with Christ, so don't worry or concentrate on that. 

Be in love with holding his hand in a beautiful place.

The limp. We go through things in life that cause us to wrestle with God. 

We have things we don't want to give up. We have struggles that are defining and impossible to push to the side and forget about. These struggles and defining moments in our lives make up our limp. 

A constant reminder of God's grace with each step.

I am a metaphor junky so I loved delving into this idea of a walk.

I would also go as far to consider myself a romantic, so comparing the walk to a walk with a significant other made complete sense to me.

It's a swept away feeling.

Not caring where you're going. Just who you're with.

How incredible that God is this for us.

Even more incredible is the fact that he will never "break up with us" if you will.

He will always be there with his hand outstretched desiring nothing more than to go on a walk.

A really long walk.

To who knows where.

And who cares.

:)

The Place of Exaltation

We have all experienced times of exaltation on the mountain, when we have seen things from God's perspective and have wanted to stay there. But God will never allow us to stay there. The true test of our spiritual life is in exhibiting the power to descend from the mountain. If we only have the power to go up, something is wrong. It is a wonderful ting to be on the mountain with God, but a person only gets there so that he may later go down and lift up the demon-possessed people in the valley. We are not made for the mountains, for sunrises, or for the other beautiful attractions in life-- those are simply intended to be moments of inspiration. We are made for the valley and the ordinary things of life, and that is where we have to prove our stamina and strength. Yet our spiritual selfishness always wants repeated moments on the mountain. We feel that we could talk and live like perfect angels, if we could only stay on the mountaintop. Those times of exaltation are exceptional and they have their meaning in our life with God, but we must beware to prevent our spiritual selfishness from wanting to make them the only time.
We are inclined to think that everything that happens is to be turned into useful teaching. In actual fact, it is to be turned into something even better than teaching, namely, character. The mountaintop is not meant to teach us anything, it is meant to make us something. There is a terrible trap in always asking, "What's the use of this experience?" We can never measure spiritual matters in that way. The moments on the mountaintop are rare moments, and they are meant for something in God's purpose.


-Oswald Chambers