Still I Walk

Continuing to walk in the face of hardship sounds noble. It sounds like the plot of a story.

“His home was taken, and yet he strode forward into battle.”

That is a great way to describe walking with God through hardship. But most of the time, that is not how it happens.

When things begin falling apart. When life changes quickly. When the path you were walking disappears. Then what?

The idea that your walk won’t change, that your faith will remain exactly the same, that your prayer life will only grow stronger is a dream at best and, at worst, denial.

Sometimes the path changes.

So what does it look like to still walk?

What It Looks Like to Still Walk

Knowing your path has changed does not mean you stop walking.

Put it into a hiking context. If you discover that the path you’re on no longer follows the map and you continue to follow the map, you will quickly find yourself off the trail.

On the other hand, choosing to follow the trail instead of the map can become more difficult.

It can look wrong at times. It can be a struggle. And there is always the possibility that you are on the wrong path.

Having someone beside you who knows the trail and understands the changes can be more than comforting. It can save you hours of time and effort.

That is part of what makes walking with God different.

I may not understand why the trail changed. I may not know where this path leads. I may even have to turn around and try again.

But I don’t have to know the whole way to take the next step.

Even when the trail changes.

Still I walk.

Following God does not guarantee that the path will remain the one we expected. We may have an idea where He is leading us, only to discover that the way there looks nothing like what we imagined.

The destination may be the same. The trail may not be.

Still I walk.

Trails Change

A changing trail does not mean failure.

It doesn’t mean you are lost.

It doesn’t mean God is upset with you.

Sometimes it simply means there is a path ahead that you cannot see yet.

This is where faith becomes more than knowing where you are going. Faith is trusting the One who knows the way when you don’t.

Still I walk.

This episode of the podcast covers a hike my oldest son and I took many years ago where the trail did not match the map.

We took many wrong turns. We retraced our steps more than once. The trail took far longer than I expected.

It wasn’t the hike I thought we were taking.

But we kept walking.

Still we walked.

Paths Change

There are many examples throughout Scripture of people whose paths did not remain what they expected.

Daniel. Jacob. Abraham. Paul.

Their stories took turns they could not have planned for themselves.

Abraham left what he knew without knowing exactly where he was going. Jacob’s life took turns he could never have mapped out. Daniel’s faithfulness led him into circumstances he did not choose. Paul thought he was walking faithfully in one direction until God completely overturned his understanding of where that faithfulness was taking him.

The point isn’t that every change in our lives is easy to explain.

It isn’t.

And Scripture doesn’t give us a map that explains every turn before we take it.

God does not usually give us a road map.

He gives us the next step.

One Step at a Time

Finishing a hike that has taken far longer than planned doesn’t require knowing exactly how many miles remain.

It requires taking the next step.

And then the next.

And then the next.

Following God is often like that.

We want to know where the trail leads. We want to know how long it will take. We want to know whether we are finally on the right path.

Sometimes we don’t get those answers.

But we can still walk.

Not because we understand the trail.

Because we trust the One walking with us.

The trail may change. The destination may be unclear. We may have to turn around. We may discover that the path ahead is harder than we expected.

Still I walk.

What is the next step you can take with God, even if you don’t know where the trail leads?

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First…

Listen to the podcast:

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Then…

Consider the next faithful step God may be asking you to take.