And this all powerful God says to us, "Come, follow me."
Can you keep up? Can I keep up? Maybe for the start of this grand race, but....
This past Sunday my best friend, Jimmy, and I hit the disc golf course at a park about twenty minutes from church (after church we almost always hit the chains). I think it was on hole twelve or thirteen when I noticed this couple jogging down the path. I nodded and said, "Hi."
It was far to beautiful a day to not greet our fellow park partakers. The girl, thin and trim, nodded and with a smile looked me in the eye and replied with a, "Hi," of her own. The guy on the other hand, a bit behind her, stocky and muscular, didn't return the greeting. I could tell he wasn't being rude. He was just singularly focused on keeping up.
It was on hole fifteen when the couple passed by us on the way back. The dude was struggling more to keep pace with the unflagging young woman who was built for running.
Jimmy and I stopped to watch. Admittedly we found it humorous. Of course the dude was doing far better then either Jimmy or I could do, but the scene wasn't without an innocent joyful mirth on our part. By the time they passed us the second time the muscular man was leaning forward and you could see him willing himself to keep up. The path they were on must have been around a two mile trek and it goes over a small bridge. When the two runners hit that bridge and it's slight incline the guy fell significantly behind. But on the decline he gained some ground again but lost it in a turn that ran along the beautiful lake.
The sun was low in the west and brightly lit the two runners on the opposite shore and just when it looked like the unfaltering woman would leave the man far behind to fend for himself she slowed down to allow him to catch up. She didn't stop, but she decreased her pace enough to give the struggling dude the impetus to join with her again.
And that's when I realized just how often God must do that for us in our growth in Jesus. He is unstoppable, unwearied, and ever steady in moving forward and He asks us to join Him.
But the truth is we can not keep pace with the Creator of everything. And so He came to us in Jesus Christ. He makes Himself available to us on a personal level slowing down so that we can join Him in a journey of spiritual fellowship and growth the likes that no other creation can know. Some days I struggle just getting one foot out of the way of the other foot. And others I feel like I'm right beside my Savior. Yet, God, says to me to follow. He is so beyond you and me.
How incredible, how humbling, how marvelous is this God?!!
The Great Separation continues.
