A Walk With The King

I have recently started taking a late evening on a regular basis.  Not for exercise, but to just stroll around campus and talk to God.  With the recent stress in my life it has proven to be very therapeutic.  This evening as I was walking I began to think about how cool it would have been to walk from town to town with Jesus, and just listen to the conversations as they unfold along the long dirt roads.  I could picture the King (no not Elvis) walking around with this group of people surrounding Him, as they hang on every word.  The beauty of the thought made me giggle to myself.  Oh what an experience it must have been to walk and talk with the Teacher!  Can you imagine it?  Will you allow yourself to take a moment and go there? Go ahead, I’ll wait…

Was I right?  Where did that thought take you? I’ll tell you where it took me.  I began to think about what we call “our daily walk with Christ”.  As I was taking my stroll around campus (staying close to the apartment because the little one made me promise I would) the phrase “walking with Christ” took on a whole new meaning to me.  I have always understood that our “walk with Christ” was living our lives in unison with His will.  Not that it isn’t, but I can’t help but think in this finite mind, that walking with Christ isn’t that much different than what His disciples did while He was here on Earth.  Stay with me for a moment and hear me out.

If you have ever taken a walk of any distance you would know that when you walk your mind goes in a whole lot of different places.  I know people that do their best thinking when they walk.  Having said that, if you have taken a walk with someone else for any distance you would know that very seldom is there silence while walking (unless you make your wife mad).  How boring would it be to walk with someone and not speak a word to that person?  I often see a few women walking around campus together and I laugh because they will be engaging in conversation with an earphone in one ear as they listen to their ipod, and listening to the person next to them talk at the same time.  Either way, they are talking.  I refuse to believe that the during all of those long walks with Jesus, He was the only one talking.  No, it was conversation; two way conversation.  I would venture to say that it was great and stimulating conversation.

The phrase “daily walk with Christ” is one that I threw around very generally, after all, it is a very Christian phrase to say.  Now however, it is a phrase that hold a whole lot more meaning to me.  When I think of the walks they had with Him some 2000 years ago, I think of them following Him wherever He was going and listening to Him teach them.  For me it has to mean the same thing.  Just as when they came to a fork in the road they looked to see where He was going before choosing which road to follow, I too should do the same thing.  My daily walk with Christ, should mirror the walks that He had with all of them.  As I go on about my day, I need not choose which direction to move in based on where I want to go. No, the decision need be made based on the direction Christ is moving.  Daily; constantly, I need to be in conversation with Him, asking question, hearing answers, and hanging on to every word the Teacher says.  I refuse to say that Christ in only in Scripture.  Don’t hear me wrong, He is in scripture, but for me to limit my learning, talking, and getting to know Him to sitting down and reading the Bible, is to me absurd.  Reading scripture is good, and important for us all to do, but engaging Him constantly on a daily basis in true relationship as we “walk” through life is where we find Christ.

In John 6 after Jesus got done preaching that He is the bread of life and whoever eats of His flesh and drinks of His blood will have eternal life, there came a moment where most of His disciples left Him.  He turned to the twelve and asked if they were going to leave also.  There response tickles me.  In verse 68 Peter says “Lord to whom shall we go? you have the words of eternal life?”.  They saw all of those people turn away and stop following (walking) with Christ, and I can’t help but think how old Pete and the others thought that they weren’t stupid, they were going to follow the King.  See, all of those other “disciples” ended up walking in a different direction than the Teacher was walking; their own direction.  If we believe… If I believe that Jesus has “the words that lead to eternal life”, and say that I am going to walk with Him daily.  Why do I turn down roads before I see where He is going?  To walk with Christ daily, is to enjoy His presence, to converse with Him, to learn from Him, and to follow Him down the road He wants to take.  Even if that road leads to the Cross…