when overwhelmed...

Out for a walk yesterday alongside a bubbling stream in south Wales, I’m sure I ought to have been bursting with freedom and happiness. Instead, my thoughts were catapulted into one of The Big Questions of Life.

How do I live with a new diagnosis of cancer, AND keep enduring severe abdominal pain that’s gone on for years, AND cope with the many other supposedly 'little' things that can accumulate and trip one up?

So, how do I live with it?

The path towards spectacular waterfalls disintegrated into squelchy brown bog – not good for my Sunday-best shoes (silly me). Peter, one of three friends with me, overtook me. He in his walking boots (envy, envy) walked confidently. And suddenly I saw that he was doing the ‘work’ of finding the secure rocks amid the damp mud.

I started to plant my own my feet exactly where Peter had placed his and I did better. Much, much better.  The key was to keep very close.

As I concentrated on my task, a line from a well-known carol came to mind. ‘In his master’s steps he trod…’ That’s when the penny dropped.

When I placed my feet where Peter had gone ahead, it worked. I could walk. And suddenly I realised that God might enable me to walk my pathway through whatever ‘pain’ I may face if I follow God’s footsteps. I trust that it will work spiritually as effectively as following Peter beside the stream.

I do actually seek to follow God like this. But yesterday the question became:  “Er - HOW?! How do I see God’s footsteps? And how do I plant my feet in His print?” It’s not as easy in spiritual practice as putting my shoes where Peter’s boots had been.

I can’t answer the “how”s. What I know is that yesterday worked only when I kept very close. When I was right behind Peter I could put my shoe in the exact place where his boot had been. From even a couple of paces away I couldn’t put each foot where his had been.

That’s the only key I have with my spiritual walk. Keep close. Don’t worry about the specifics: just keep close enough.

So today I fling the challenge out to anyone who embraces adventure. When we don’t know how to follow God, or even pray (I can’t at the moment), how about aiming solely to draw closer? We just might find ourselves enabled to follow His footsteps ‘and in them plant our own’ – whatever that means. We could discover that God equipping us has something to do with the fact that He understands the difference between Him having boots while we have only shoes …