Yesterday, I went hiking (if you can call a quarter-mile trail, a hike) with my youth group kids. And it was hard. Like, imagine if the air turned to water, and you suddenly had to develop the muscles to walk through it. Everything in you has to push your body through it, each and every step. That’s how the short hike was yesterday.
Which was weird.
Now, I’m not the best hiker in the world. And I’m obviously not in incredible shape. BUT I’m in MUCH better shape than the above statement implies. I had just spent the weekend before in the mountains and done a tiny bit of hiking with much better success. And while I was still the slowest hiker in the group over the weekend, and I had to catch my breath a lot – the whole walking-in-water-this-is-impossible feeling was NOT something I felt.
So what had changed in the course of just a couple days?
As I mentally pushed through each and every step for a quarter mile, I tried to figure it out.
And I’ve come to a conclusion. I THINK it had something to do with the fact that the day before the short hike, I hardly drank any water, and I ate more than a healthy share of sugar. I hadn’t done that over the weekend. I had eaten (relatively) healthy. My lack of healthy food and water intake affected my hiking performance in a more obvious, bigger way than I expected.
And (of course) I got to thinking that this is true of my life (not just my body ) as well. Everything affects my ability to be the woman God created me to be. If I’m paying attention to God, listening to voices that point me in that direction (godly friends, uplifting music/movies/books/etc.) than being that woman, living a life that God has called me to, is going to be so much easier (and, in fact, actually possible) and so much more enjoyable. But if I’m “eating a bunch of sugar” ( or watching movies that put my mind in places that aren’t healthy, or listening to friends who might not have the godliest wisdom, or any wisdom) than attempting to be the woman God created me to be is going to be practically impossible. And will probably feel like walking through water. Not much fun.
So, to clear up a slightly muddy point, what voices are you allowing to speak into your life’s story? Who is helping to narrate your life story? Is it God and people who are a first-name- basis with Him? Is it music and stories that help you think about Him, and good, pure, honorable, things?
Or, are you listening to “sugar” that will slow you down and make simple, enjoyable things like a quarter-mile hike feel practically impossible? That’s not how God intended you to have to live life. He has better for you.
In His Chrysalis 