Small Steps

by Joni Eareckson Tada

"Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit." Galatians 5:25

A friend of mine who suffers from migraine headaches tells me that on some mornings she wakes up thinking, How can I do this?  I don't have the will to even get out of bed.  Lord, help me just make it to the shower.  On days like this, she says she's doing great if she can make it to lunch time without collapsing back in bed from pain.

When you're hurting, life is lived in steps.  Very small steps.  The sufficiency of Christ is more than enough to meet the needs of a lifetime, but life can only be lived one day, one moment, at a time.

This is why today's verse is one of my friend's favorites.  Especially the part about keeping "in step with the Spirit."  The meaning here is not about keeping pace, as if the Spirit were racing ahead and we'd better keep up with Him; it has to do with measuring one's moments in a slow and circumspect way.  God's strength is available one day at a time (Lamentations 3:22-23).  And frankly, when you're suffering like my friend, you are only able to take one day at a time -- often, one hour at a time.

Contentment comes from many great and small acceptances in life.  What is there in your life right now that is slowing you down?  Can you thank God for it, knowing that it makes you gear down to a slower speed? Discontented people are always rushing ahead to escape the 'now' of their circumstances.  The environment in which to learn how to be content is the environment of moments and small steps.  When life isn't the way you like it, like it the way it is one day, one hour at a time... with Christ.  And you will be blessed.         

There are things in my life, Lord, which are slowing me down.  Help me to see these 'problems' as opportunities to keep in closer step with the Spirit.