This is the Way

This is the Way

by Julie Lavender

“Your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it.’" The words were originally Isaiah’s (Isaiah 30:21), and I was pretty sure I’d just heard them said to me: “This is the way, Julie. Walk.”

I’ll admit –I’ve never been into exercising. I didn’t excel at sports as a kid, and I was a dance disaster.

I worked during high school and college and used the excuse that I was too busy to exercise. And when kids came along, well, I was even busier as a homeschooling Mommy to four children and wife of a Navy entomologist.

But when one of those little ones came home with an engagement ring, I decided the only way to fit into the dress I wanted to wear to the wedding and to get healthy enough to keep up with future grandchildren was to initiate a daily walking routine.

But I don't want to walk!

“But I don’t want to walk,” I argued with myself. “Walking will take up too much of my day. Walking is boring. I don’t have the energy to walk every day. Summers in south-Georgia are too hot for walking. The bugs are terrible. I don’t like the cold.”

The argument took place just outside my old homeplace – a dilapidated farmhouse a stone’s throw from the double-wide trailer that my mom lived in. My dad was no longer living, so my children took turns cutting the grass on the property.

I often accompanied the grass-cutter to remove sticks and debris from the yard, and I glanced at the old house – the only home I’d known before marrying my high school and college sweetheart.

Where my walk began...

The front porch, sagging and groaning from the weight of the tin roof and years of disrepair, brought to mind the endless hours I’d spent swinging to and fro. Something about the front porch, even as a child, made me feel close to God.

I treasured that closeness in my own home, the one I shared with my husband and four children after David retired from the Navy and we settled back in our hometown of Statesboro, Georgia. The front porch swing beckoned me to meet with God, to share my thoughts and requests and praises and ponderings.

I could walk and pray instead of swing and pray.  

Where had that thought come from?

I knew I needed to lose a host of pounds to get back to a sensible weight for my height, and, with the medical problems that my dad experienced and quite possibly passed along to us children, I also recognized the need for a healthier lifestyle – exercise and a better diet.

 I can do this. I can walk and pray. I can get healthier before the wedding and use the time to talk to God, to listen to God.

I’m kinda like that old porch, God – I’m sagging and groaning and in need of some repair, physically and spiritually. We can do this; can’t we God? We can do this together. Whether I turn to the right or to the left on my journey, I know you’ll be with me, for you promised that to me in the first part of Isaiah 30:21.

Okay, God. I’m lacing up my sneakers.

LET'S GO FOR A WALK!