A new year has begun. This is my first day of posting on a blog. I am uncertain of how this will turn out. I have been writing a journal now for a couple of years about walking with faith. It is a simple journal of my life. It includes a few events from the day and then closes with my thoughts about my own relationship with the Lord. I try to write each day, with the exception of Sunday. That day is my day of rest. I don't always manage to write though. Just like most people I know, my life is filled with distractions and struggles. Those have taken my focus away from the Lord more often than I like to admit. Those are the days when I find it difficult to write. I suspect that is because it is hard to write about a relationship that you don't have at that moment.
I normally write late in the day or early the next morning about each day of my walk with faith. The first year I wrote 'Walking with Faith' the subtitle was 'Why is such an easy walk so hard?' Last year the subtitle changed to simply 'Day by day'. This year I have started with a subtitle of 'Struggle no more'. That is going to be the focus of my efforts as I walk with faith for this year, to struggle no more. Each year as I have written I have grown and changed. I believe for the better, though I know some in my life who would question the changes in me. I feel closer to the Lord and more connected when I am writing and thinking about my relationship with the Lord. Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on your viewpoint, that also makes me feel more lost when I can't find that connection and write. Writing helps me to think and grow my faith. It also offers me an opportunity to share what I feel is a wonderful gift; a story about a relationship with God.
I have spent most of my life in a constant struggle. During the last few years that struggle has come close to destroying me. Indeed it would have destroyed me, if not for the Lord walking with me. As this past year began coming to a close I began to realize that my struggles weren't a requirement for walking with faith. Now don't take this wrong. I still expect to struggle and face problems. We are told that we must sacrifice and even suffer if we are to follow the Lord. However we aren't told that it must be a constant struggle and sacrifice for us. In fact we should be filled with joy no matter what we might be facing on our walk with faith.
Each day we are told we must take up our cross and follow the Lord. I have begun to realize that doesn't mean taking on a burden each day. You see the Lord asks us to take up our cross not His cross. Jesus carried the cross that held the burden of our sins upon it for us. The cross we are to carry has the burdens of love, joy, and obedience upon it. Those are light burdens to carry or they should be. The thing that makes our cross such a burden is that we often seem to forget one of those. I think that instead of taking up the love, joy, and obedience that we should each day we often leave one or more of them behind. Then they become a huge weight that we must drag along behind us as we 'struggle' to carry other burdens that we should leave at the feet of our Lord.
My day has just begun and I do not yet know what it will hold in store for me. I am hopeful that today will be a new day in a new year of my life. I am hopeful that today I will lay down my other burdens and stop struggling to carry those, so that I can take up my cross and truly begin walking with faith. I am looking forward to being loaded down with love and joy as I obediently follow my Lord. Walking with faith isn't meant to be a constant struggle. It is meant to be a constant journey... a journey home with the Lord.
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