Let’s Go for a Walk!

Didn’t seem like a very good day for it last Saturday—cold, cloudy, an icy mist in the forecast—but I felt the need to get some exercise, so suggested to my bride that we go for a walk.

We headed to one of our favorite local spots, a multi-use trail that begins in a nearby park, meanders through the woods into Sinnissippi Park, and follows the Rock River. If you go far enough, you’ll cross a bridge spanning the Rock, and then connect to the Hennepin Canal Feeder Trail, which I’ve written about earlier. If someone wanted to, they could walk this trail system for days.

Ours was a mere hour and change. We walked a mile and three-quarters before turning around. By the time we reached the car, the promised icy mist had arrived.

The walk itself could’ve been treacherous, had it not been for our newly discovered YakTrax. And it was plenty cold—low 20s with a brisk breeze blowing off the ice-covered river. Despite the cold and potential hazards, though, the walk was enjoyable, invigorating, and beneficial in many ways.

Naturally, the exercise itself was beneficial. According to the Mayo Clinic website, walking just 30 minutes a day, five days a week is very effective for getting and staying in shape. Other sources I’ve read suggested that taking two 15-minute walks a day, five days a week, is almost as good for you. Frankly, I’ve been surprised at the number of articles that appeared in the last year or two touting the tremendous health benefits of just going for a walk.

Trail time also affords my wife and I the opportunity to connect in ways it’s difficult to do at home during the course of the week. Too many distractions and interruptions prevent lengthy discussion. Not on the trail, though.

We can talk about plans for the coming week, months, or even the year. We discuss challenges in our work or home. We share some burdens and joys, concerns for people we know, love, and serve.

Walking outdoors in a park setting delights the senses, too.

Smelling aromas of the woods…

…listening to the windsong playing through the trees

…watching squirrels dig through the snow searching for lunch

…hearing geese and gulls fuss with one another over who-knows-what

…feeling the sharp wind bite nose and cheek

…catching the sound of crunching snow beneath the feet

All of these and more have a remarkable way of calming the mind and orienting the soul.

There’s a lot to be said for walking.

I scanned my very small library of hiking books, and a few with “walking” in the title stood out.

His is a fascinating, but tragic tale on several levels. Of all things, late in life, he was hit by a car crossing the road, essentially ending his walking altogether.

On the day he retired from his stint with the New York Times, Wren walked out of the office, through the streets of New York City and its suburbs, “into the Housatonic River Valley of Connecticut, the Berkshires of Massachusetts, the Green Mountains of Vermont, and along a bucolic riverbank in New Hampshire” before arriving at his new home in central Vermont.

…but Two Miles an Hour makes the case for the average walking speed when carrying a backpack. The author recounts hiking trips in the USA, Ireland, Scotland, and England—and all averaged, yep, two miles an hour.

A few years ago for Christmas, my wife gave me a book that briefly described dozens of the greatest walks in the world. In many ways, I loved the gift. The summaries intrigued and sparked the imagination. It was fascinating to imagine walking some of the trails. What I didn’t like about the book is it made my bucket list impossible to complete!

…chronicles the story of Edward Payson Weston’s 1909 walk from New York to San Francisco. Before paved roads everywhere. Hoofing 40 miles a day. At age 70. Weston is considered “the father of American pedestrianism, a 19^th century pastime that had been sidelined by the time of his great walk thanks to the sleek, swift automobile…. Weston was walking from one era into another, fighting a fruitless battle against the future on foot.”

The author does more than simply tell the compelling story of Weston’s walk. He “explores what we lost—physically, psychically, and socially—when we turned away from walking.”

I’m thinking a case could be made for a spiritual impact as well.

The reason for the suggestion is that “walking” figures large in the Bible.

In its earliest pages we read of individuals who “walked with God”:

• Enoch walked with God… – Genesis 5:22

• Noah walked with God… – Genesis 6:9

Seems like it refers to some of the benefits of walking along the riverside with my wife. Conversation…sharing…unburdening…listening…communion….0

 The idea challenges my lifestyle. Am I in too much of hurry running through the day to slow down and walk with God?

To the father of the Israelite nation, Abram, God told him, “Walk before me and be blameless…” (Genesis 17:1). Essentially, He told the man to “walk in my presence.” The point is clear, isn’t it? We’re to live in the light of the constant presence of God. But why did He choose the word “walk” instead of “live”? Perhaps because walking is a deliberate, thoughtful action. When you go for a walk, you have a purpose in mind, a destination point, a path to follow to get you there, and so on. How much “deliberateness” goes on when living at breakneck speed, running here and there…?

After giving the Law to Moses on Mt. Sinai, Moses told the people,

You shall walk in all the way that the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live, and that it may go well with you, and that you may live long in the land that you shall possess. — Deuteronomy 5:33 (ESV)

Again the idea of thoughtful, deliberate, carefully chosen steps—determined by what God has commanded.

The Hebrew songbook, Psalms, opens with these words:

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly… — Psalm 1:1

Who influences my goal or destination…my direction…my path…?

Proverbs 2:7 declares that the Lord is “a shield to those who walk in integrity.”

Do I? Can I count on His protection?

Did you ever notice that Jesus’s primary mode of transportation was walking? A couple times He rode a boat across the Sea of Galilee—but on one of those occasions, He walked on the water to get to the boat! And one time He rode on a donkey’s colt for the Triumphal Entry—that symbolic declaration that He is the King.

Other than those rare instances, Jesus walked. Everywhere. And His followers needed to walk with Him that they might learn of Him. Just as Enoch and Noah walked with God!

I’ll not take the time to enumerate them all, but the word “walk” occurs 44 times in Romans through Revelation in the New Testament. The vast majority of those occurrences concern how a person lives out the Christian life. For example:

• We “walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.” – Romans 8:4

• Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. – Romans 13:13 (ESV)

• But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. — Galatians 5:16 (ESV)

• For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. — Ephesians 2:10 (ESV)

• Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. — Colossians 4:5 (ESV)

• If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. ⁷ But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. — 1 John 1:6–7 (ESV)

I think that’s enough to get the gist. The Christian life is essentially a way of walking through this world.

So, what do you say?

Let’s go for a walk, shall we?