Examining Your Movements into the New Year

From where I was sitting, I could only see her hat and shoulders. The chair in front of the living room window blocked the rest of her body, but I knew immediately who it was. It was the woman in our subdivision who rapidly laps the circle of homes multiple times per day.

“That’s at least her third trip around,” Matt said one day, as we were taking a walk at a much slower pace than she was. The circle is at least a mile and a quarter, I would say, so this neighbor of ours is putting on serious miles, and she’s clocking them fast. She walks alone, not meandering with a friend. Her head and shoulders are always bent forward as she walks, and her arms work like pistons, propelling her forward.

I always want to stop this woman and ask, “Soooo, watcha doin’? Training for something?” She can’t possibly be trying to lose weight, because she has a figure that looks like she walks miles a day. I wonder what pushes her to get out and walk with such energy, determination, and regularity.

It’s January 1^st and 10 degrees outside, but there she is, walking just like she has been doing every single day for months. We were traveling home from Wyoming yesterday, but I bet this neighbor didn’t miss yesterday’s walk either, despite single-digit temps.

First day of the new year, you know. It’s the day when we wake up and for a few hours plan to do everything perfectly for the next 365 days. I want what that woman has, and I’m not talking about copying her walking regimen, although that wouldn’t hurt. What I want is for people to see me doing the same good thing every day.

“Oh, there she goes again,” I want them to say, except I’m thinking mostly about my walk with God. I want the people in my life to notice that I’m clicking along with the Lord at a healthy pace.

For the people who are watching me–and I know there are people watching me, I want them to see me opening up my Bible, meditating on verses, and living by those verses. I want them to see that no matter how pleasant or how brutal the climate of my life, I’m out there–day after day–loving Jesus by obeying his precepts.

Even if people catch only a glimpse of my hat and shoulders, I want them to know immediately who I am and that I’m someone who is going somewhere on purpose, with energy, without fail.

Now’s the time to set your stride, friend.