Learning to Walk

How we love to see our children, grandchildren or great grandchildren taking their
first steps as they learn to walk. The reason they try to walk is twofold, firstly they have a natural instinct to want to walk and secondly they copy everything they see their parents do. How delighted they are when they take their first steps. Not to mention how delighted and proud their parents are to see them walk. However, they invariably look back at us with a huge smile on their face and then fall over because they have stopped concentrating on what they were doing. Sometimes they will get straight back up and keep going, other times they will cry because they have either hurt themselves or just got frightened by falling. Either way they don’t give up and we don’t give up on them either, instead we just say “Ups a Daisy” or something like that, dust them off, put a “Band Aid” on any scratch they might have acquired, and encourage them to keep trying.

We behave like that because they are part of our family, we love them and want them to achieve more and more independence so they can enjoy the world around them. Walking without falling too frequently, is what we would like them to achieve, however we know that no matter how good they become at walking they will fall at some time, because we all do. But our aim is not to fall.  

The same goes for our Spiritual life. The aim of every Christian should be to learn to walk in the light of the Gospel and “Pursue Holiness” as the Bible puts it; indeed, it is not an option as we are instructed to “pursue holiness without which no one will see the Lord”. Now that sounds like a rather severe statement. The bible also orders men to “love their wives”, and that sounds severe too, however, seeing that I married my wife because I was in love with her I was delighted to obey God’s command, so I thought it might be a good idea if we have a look at this “holiness” issue also, and try to understand what is expected of us. Perhaps “expected” is the wrong word though because “expected” implies that we are doing something because it is our “duty” as was implied when I was told to “love my wife” (which turned out to be what I wanted to do anyway). Likewise, the reason we are endeavouring to be holy should be because we want to please Jesus as we begin to appreciate what He has done for us. Just as our children want to copy us and walk the way we do. The dictionary describes “holiness” as “high moral and Spiritual excellence coming from devotion to God”. So, wishing to please God, we endeavour to behave as we believe God or Jesus would behave if they were in our position or circumstance. A big ask, one might say, well “yes” and “no”. Certainly it is a “big ask” if we try to achieve Holiness “under our own steam”, so to speak, especially if we have been living a life divorced from God so may have been a thief, a liar, immoral, a cheat, spending our life on all sorts of stupidities, being resentful and unforgiving, having no real love for anyone but ourselves. Now if we have had all, or even some of those faults, we may also be surrounded by “peer group pressure” and will not find a sudden change easy. Just like our baby learning to walk, we will often “fall”. However, if we have repented, (decided that we really want to change and be true followers of Christ in this life and on into Heaven) then to succeed is not such a big ask. This applies to all of us because, the Holy Spirit will help us achieve this aim. Audrey’s father used to say that “the person who hasn’t made a mistake, hasn’t made anything,” and I believe that is true, so if we make a mistake we don’t give up, just “dust ourselves off”, and in prayer, ask the Holy Spirit to help us overcome those things that hinder our walk towards Holiness.

We will never achieve the Holiness of God, of course, and achieving it would not, on its own, earn us a place in heaven either. Believing in Jesus and accepting His saving grace, alone does that, but we are told to pursue holiness nevertheless, so we will learn to improve our behaviour. Pursuing anything is to follow it with undivided attention.

 With a rifle under my arm, I have often pursued a fox across a paddock where our

sheep were lambing. To do so takes a lot of concentration you can’t take your eye off him for one minute or you might lose sight of him in the grass. That way, by keeping your mind on the job, you get closer and closer. Similarly, we need determination, singleness of mind and dependence on God to achieve a walk towards Holiness. The secret is don’t mark time or give up or allow yourself to be distracted by lesser issues because the end result is too important.

May God bless us all as we endeavour to achieve this aim.   Kind regards, Tom.