At a recent visit with my doctor, he asked me a repetitive question that is asked of most patients, “Do you exercise.” Being a pastor, I felt that my reputation was on the line and knew that I could not lie, so I replied, “Well, mostly walking.” Then came the follow-up question of “How much?”
Unless we are walking with determination to exercise, most of us never give much thought to it. Walking is a natural process whereby we put one foot in front of the other for the sole purpose of moving forward from one place to another. Though we may have aching feet and tired legs at the end of the day, we don’t stop to analyze our steps.
According to a recent article in a medical journal, the average American man takes about 5,340 steps per day, which is considered low active. Health experts recommend aiming for 7,000 to 10,000 steps daily for better health outcomes.
Ten thousand steps a day seem to me as dangerous as driving 15,000 miles per year: putting us at risk of an accident. I am sure that most of us have slipped on ice, stubbed our toes, or just wasn’t looking and we have fallen. Sometimes, even to our hurt.
Though many steps are important to our overall physical health, (as is watching where we walk), what about our spiritual health?
In Psalm 37:23-24 the psalmist David said, “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and He delights in his way. Though he falls, he shall not be utterly cast down; for the Lord upholds him with His hand.”
A ‘good man’ is a righteous man who has been declared righteous through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. The fact that his steps are ‘ordered by the Lord’ means that God orders the pathway He desires for us to follow. It does not mean that every moment of every day is predestined by the Lord, robbing us of freewill. God still allows us to be free to choose between right and wrong, and good and what He knows is best for us individually.
Our heavenly Father desires the best for us, but as with our own children, we often allowed them to make choices and decisions we knew were not best for them, because parenting involves teaching how to grow and mature to adulthood.
There will be times that we make bad decisions and wrong choices, causing us trials and tribulations that hurt. When this happens, God does not abandon us; nor does He mock us and tell us, “I told you so!” Rather, He upholds us; that is, He picks us up, brushes away the dirt, bandages the scraped knee, and sets us back on the pathway He desires for us.
I like to think of the bandage as being His Word. There is nothing that heals and comforts us more than to read that His word “reproves, corrects, and instructs us that we might prove what is God’s good and perfect will for us.”
Jerry L. Dunn is pastor of Oak Street Baptist Church, 605 E. Oak St., Kingman
