Eye on the Goal.

I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 3:14 

I had to do something. I was gaining weight and there was no end to my opportunities to eat! I wondered how I used to keep it off and then I remembered that I used to exercise. Eat less, exercise more, I knew it already but I was not practicing it.  

So, with my husband, I have started to walk. We can easily do a couple of miles enjoying the company and the views we see on the Wyomissing trail system close to us. But, one morning last week he got up really early and I waved goodbye. I just couldn’t get out of bed but promised myself I would go later, which I did.  

I took the same route he and I had taken the day before. It goes through this beautiful stand of Pine trees. As you go through you feel like you are completely secluded from the world. It is a longer route than we usually take (this is sort of relative because we have only been taking these “usual” walks for a couple of weeks now!). When I went with my husband I knew it was longer but I was fine, the next day it felt like I was walking forever!

My strategy to complete the walk was to take my mind off the legs and the length of the trip. I consciously reminded myself to look up at the beautiful view and to listen to the birds and look for any wildlife I might see (very little at 9:30 AM).  

Before I knew it I was almost “out of the woods”. I had seen the beauty around me and physically gotten up that one last, steep, hill. I was so happy I had not given up.  

What a lesson for me. I have often done walks like that thinking about the length, the heat, the hills, and the aching in legs. This day I made a decision not to think on those things but to look for what was going to bring me the pleasure – which included finishing the whole walk.

 

Colossians 3:2  tells us to: “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” By setting my mind on the things above, the more important things for a walk, I was able to finish it. How often in the difficult, trying trails I have had to walk in life have I concentrated on the things of earth?  

I think about how hard something will be. I look at those who are better at it than I. I am discouraged by the time a task takes me to finish, or, I just don’t believe God will give me what it takes to complete it – until it’s over and I have spent time worrying about something He had under control the whole time.  

As I was taking this walk and realized how well my little scheme was working I laughed at myself. You see, there is a task God has been calling me to do that I have thought I was not prepared for. I have told myself that it isn’t one of my gifts, that others could do it better than I, and that I don’t have time for it. My attention was all on me and not on God. I saw an impossible task completely forgetting that, “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”

 

So, our faithful God has given me another lesson in relying on Him, looking to Him to enable me to do all He calls me to. His beauty is far greater than the Pine trees of Wyomissing, Pa. Why does it take me so long to look up to Him when I feel like I can’t even start something He has called me to do when pleasing Him is my goal? 

Lord, help me to think like the Apostle Paul. He said, “But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.”  Acts 20:24 

How about you? Are you following the call of God on your life or looking at the path thinking it will be too hard?