Nearness

I just returned from a walk from our apartment to a local grocery store. Josh and I are in a dilemna lately of having one car. We've managed with our one car for about a year now and for the most part we've encountered no major battles, until our one car ended up in and out of the the shop for several months. We've been using different cars (old beaters) and recently a friend has let us borrow his stick shift car, while our car has been in the shop for another couple of weeks. It's a blessing to have a car (don't get me wrong). But I've never learned how to drive a stick shift and so Josh has to take me to and from work, etc.

I'm a girl who loves her cold seasons and as crazy as it sounds I tend to crave the rain. I know, I know...lame. Lately we've been having quite a bit of rain and you know how the old saying goes "April showers bring May flowers!"

The other day was beautiful and I decided to set myself up for a challenge. I worked a 8 hour shift and had brought some walking shoes and clothes to change into after work. I decided to walk from work to home (they happen to be in two neighboring cities). I was doing great and then the last hooray hit: our ginormous hill that seems to go up and up and up until you feel like your climbing to heaven (when you're walking that is, not when you're driving). It was a challenge I was very happy to meet. I felt good afterward...until I sat down!

Walking from work to home was a huge deal. I hadn't walked that much in a long time, especially after being on my feet for hours at work. Walking from home to our nearby grocery store wasn't that big of a deal. My biggest worry was getting caught in the rain, but I made it with only a few sprinkles on my forehead.

How many times are we up for the goal of drawing close to God?

We set ourselves all sorts of goals, especially physically. But the nearness of God is actually closer than we make it out to be.

Do you ever have one of those days where you feel like you have to cross this, this and that off your to-do list before you can quiet yourself before God? I do.

I was reminded in my recent walks that drawing close to God should be as easy as my walk from home to the grocery store. But we make that feat as laborous as my walk from work to home. Why?

Yesterday I sat down with a friend who has been struggling in her walk. She, like so many of us, is consummed by a rigid schedule between school and work and social life. She knows she needs to make God a priority and is being pro-active with that. But my heart too resonates with her's. Sometimes I make the nearness of God, the drawing close to Him a chore or at least something to mark off as "done."

Sometimes I think God must laugh at our fumblings, not in an arogant sort of way but in a "Oh my their learing this one the hard way again." God is constant, never changing. Is doesn't change. We change, we wrestle.

I'm so thankful that my "walks" have become a parable of sorts to teach me this lesson today.