As we drove down the long winding roads to her home and I internally ooo’d and ahhhh’d at the gorgeous shades of green among the trees and shrubbery, I noticed people walking and running in the street. It seemed that at certain points in the beautiful tucked away residential community there were…no sidewalks. As a city girl and avid walker, I am not a fan of the lands with no sidewalks. I made a mental note of where the sidewalks ended, noting where I may or may not be able to walk during my morning outing the next day.
As I set out on my walk shortly after 6am the next morning I laughed thinking of how my friend teased me about believing I’d walk all the way to Target or Starbucks, both anchor stores in the shopping center at the top of the hill juxtaposed to the entry to her residential community. In my mind doing so was not safely feasible. There were no sidewalks.
Only bound by time, with my first meeting at 9am, I agreed to walk as far as I’d like, as long as I could return and have adequate time to shower, dress, and prep for my 9am. I mostly committed to the left side of the roads, and as I walked and walked, there was pavement after pavement, after pavement. All the way to the top of the hill with the pedestrian cross walk that guided me to a tall almond milk matcha latte with sugar free vanilla syrup at Starbucks. No dirt path, no gravel path, no worm down grass path. Paved. From where I sat in the car the day before, there did not seem to be pavement beyond a certain point. A walk to Starbucks seemed impossible to do safely from my window seat perspective. What I saw seemed to offer reality, a reality that spoke to limitations, especially if I wanted to be safe and not risk incident or accident with a car.
As I walked the paved path back I could not help but be reminded of how God graciously paves the way for us. He simply asks us to walk in faith, in obedience, in trust. He asks us to not accept what we perceive as reality; as the end all be all. That we not think because we cannot see the access that we have been denied access. He asks us to be willing to get up, to go, and to keep going. He asks us to want, to come boldly to Him, to make our requests known to Him, and to trust His timing, His provision, His good plan for us.
My prayer for us this week is that we trust He is paving the way. That we not look at circumstances from a distance, from our past, from our depression, anxiety, heartache, heartbreak, disappointment, mistake, failure, angst, overwhelm, need for control, but that we look through faith, through surrender, through His provision and unconditional love for us, through groundedness in His grit and grace for us in each and every circumstance. That we get up, go, and keep going- one faithful, obedient, purpose filled step at a time.
With Love,
Grit + Grace