Going for a Walk

It is wise for us to work towards obtainable goals.  A goal can be a motivation as well as a guide to focus our efforts and remember why our labours will be worth it in the end.  Whether your goal is to fit into last year's pants again or to make the perfect pavlova, there can be great satisfaction in accomplishing what we set out to do.  It is also wise to consider our motivations in setting goals:  one could want to slim down for health reasons and another out of vanity and pride.

This need to examine our motives can ring true with goals like planting a church or increasing church membership.  People can be enthusiastic to obtain their ends like a dog that chokes himself on the lead his master uses to restrain him.  I have walked dogs that pulled so violently on the lead during a walk it almost resulted in their own strangulation!  Outside the confines of the yard some dogs are so excited to walk and explore they frankly lose their minds.  Why?  Because they have never been been trained to heed verbal commands.  Such dogs cannot be trusted to have the lead removed because they would never "come when called" or pay their master any heed but to run when their begging owner drew near.

It is interesting a dog can be so forceful to pull in a direction and not even know where he is heading.  Perhaps without the fence in the way the instinctive goal is escape!  When my brother took our dog through obedience training, it made walks much more enjoyable for dog and owner because our dog realised who was in charge.  How we need this reminder as sheep of the Good Shepherd Jesus Christ, as fellow labourers under His yoke!  The shepherd has plans the sheep cannot comprehend and daily provides for all the needs of the sheep under his care.  A sheep that trusts the guidance of the shepherd does not need to set goals for itself, and in following the Master we are led into new pastures and to still waters, to explore vast horizons we never imagined existed.

Going for a walk is basically taking a series of steps, one after another.  Walking the dog is good for exercise and training yet in itself never really accomplishes anything because the starting and finishing point is the same.  The walk of faith in Jesus is very different because we are fundamentally changed and transformed from within as we walk by Christ's side.  He takes us to places we never imagined and helps us navigate all manner of obstacles and difficulties through His wisdom.  He has goals for us we perhaps shrink from and has plans that are greater than our grandest dreams.  Every day is an adventure in His grace as we learn obedience by what He allows us to suffer.  Jesus' sheep hear His voice, He knows them, and we follow Him.

If pursuit and obedience to Jesus Christ by faith is our goal, we do well to labour to accomplish this.  All other goals we set for ourselves may be nothing more than resemble a dog straining at the lead to sniff a plant on the other side of a street busy with traffic.