Walking and Talking

Not to be confused with “Walkie-talkieing.” Although…

The above photo reveals the shoe of champions. No, really, they’re called “Champions.”

I had such an amazing weekend. However, I didn’t realize that it had gone so swimmingly until late Sunday afternoon. I’ve got some stories for you this week!

Saturday morning I woke feeling emotionally flat. This is a common occurrence. To pick up I’d planned to spend time with Jesus through listening to worship music. This wasn’t going so well at first, but the Lord sorted me out. I’ll expand on this later in the week as one of my double posts.

So my morning began low, but I experienced a high. Unfortunately this high didn’t last. Yep, hills and valleys. I was met with another metaphorical hill to climb as my low mood returned. Time to go out for my walk. 

Because I was feeling so lousy (near tears) I did a whole lot of talking to God. Walking and talking is so good. Both help to clear my mind and unburden, but I don’t always do this. When I’m really struggling and hurting, however, I have no problem lamenting and asking God for everything I need under the sun. 

Normally when I go out I immediately head for the staircase. If I have enough energy I’ll run up the first two reps and then walk the rest. Occasionally I’m able to run the first three reps, but not often. Those rare days are quite fun. 

If I don’t have enough energy to run I’ll simply walk them. This time my energy was quite low so I avoided them all together and went straight to walking my three times around the neighborhood. 

On my last round, as I headed back towards our home, I saw Andrew walking out to the end of the driveway. I knew right away how worried he was about me. He felt that I had been gone too long. I hadn’t been. I hadn’t even utilized the steps! He was just very worried. 

By this time talking to The Lord was a really good thing, so before I saw my husband I’d already planned to climb my steps at the end of my walk. I told him not to worry about me, that I’d been talking to God the whole time and I really wanted to do my steps before I came in. I was struggling emotionally, but pouring my heart out to the Lord was helping. 

This isn’t new to me. I started praying on my walks years ago, but clearly I haven’t been doing this enough. When I get out there, feeling troubled and alone, I have to remember that Jesus is always just a conversation away. This step needs to be utilized too. Sometimes the conversation feels as if it’s going one way, but knowing that He hears, and trusting that He will answer, always fills me with hope. 

—

“The Lord is far from the wicked, but He hears the prayer of the righteous.”

Proverbs 15:29 

“And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of Him.”

1 John 5:15

“Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

Hebrews 4:16