Every Step a Prayer

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Thomas R. Hawkins. Every Step a Prayer

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ROBERT AND JONATHAN

Walking Companions and Fellow Pilgrims

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Without such opportunities, we can wander off the path and find ourselves in some cul-de-sac of existence. Our frantic schedules can throw us off balance. Cable news and social media distract us with an endless tsunami of information and images that encourage us to skim along the surface of life. Living in the shallows of being, we never “taste and see that the LORD is good” (Ps. 34:8). Speed limits our ability to live mindfully in God’s moment-by-moment care. Christian practices such as walking, eating, or washing help us stay on the path that leads to a life of fullness and spiritual depth.

When we take to our feet in worship, we are being invited to place before God all those men and women with whom and for whom we walk during the week: the elderly parents whose arms we hold as they walk from the bedroom to the kitchen or the child whose hand we take as we walk across a busy street. Our walking in worship reminds us of our daily call to solidarity with the refugee who has walked to safety across a desolate war zone. It becomes an act of confession and penitence for all the people we have walked away from because we were too afraid, too busy, or too self-absorbed to care about them. The places, people, and purposes for which we walk are gathered together, sanctified, forgiven, and blessed as we take to our feet in worship. When we walk as a Christian practice, we silently pray with the psalmist, “Make me to know your ways, O LORD; teach me your paths” (25:4).

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