February 2015

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Show me the right path, O Lord, point out the road for me to follow.
Psalm 25: 4


Perfect Walkers

            The light snow we had last week didn't accumulate on grassy areas or farm fields, but froze only on hardpacked areas, the gravel drive and roads. It was striking to see these so white in contrast with the large snowless areas. I went for a walk in our woods that morning, and the same was true there - all the critter trails in the woods white, the rest of the landscape, bare.

            It was breathtaking to see all the wild creatures' little winding pathways revealed so clearly. I felt like I'd been let in on their secrets. I decided to follow one path that led off into the brush behind the back pasture, just to see where it led.  There were a mishmash of tracks, several different species, along the path, and I wondered when each had passed there. Why had each animal been out? To find food, most likely, but had any one encountered any other one?  Encounter. Hmmm. . . I might encounter "someone" out here.  Who had left these tracks?  Other than deer and those of our barn cat, I wasn't really sure.  Without even a walking stick in hand, maybe it would be best to find out before I went too far and found myself face to face with a frightened raccoon, coyote, or skunk! I turned and headed back to the house.

            From my little pocket guide, Track Finder by Dorcas Miller, I learned that, indeed, coyote, that cunning trickster, had been one of the trails I'd been following. I was glad to feel the house around me like a kind of armor. 

            I also learned that whitetail deer, coyote, fox, wolf, bobcat, and lynx, are categorized as Perfect Walkers because their tracks look, "like a nearly straight line of prints. . . It places the hind foot almost exactly in the print made by the front foot" (Miller). I thought of my messy, imperfect prints out there, covering up such precision.            

            And then I thought of my faith walk, two things in particular.

            First, it's good to know who you're following.  Am I merely following religious tradition? Or some currently popular personality whose preaching style and/or doctrine appeals to me? The coyote is a cunning trickster, though even he may not know it. Or am I following Jesus, someone I know personally from reading the Bible and praying?

Then he said to the crowd, "If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross daily, and follow me."  Luke 9:23 NLT

            Whose trail am I following?

            Secondly, in a walk of faith, it's humanly impossible to be a Perfect Walker at all times. We lose our balance, or even trip and fall. A messy business, being human. Be holy for I am holy, Jesus said. Holiness is not never messing up; it's the heart attitude of never wanting to mess up. And of quick confession. We may not walk perfectly, but we can walk perfected by the One who came to forgive us our stumbling, and help us get back on our feet.

If we claim that we're free of sin, we're only fooling ourselves.  A claim like that is errant nonsense.  On the other hand, if we admit our sins - make a clean break of them - he won't let us down; he'll be true to himself.  He'll forgive our sins and purge us of all wrongdoing.  If we claim that we've never sinned, we out-and-out contradict God - make a liar out of him.  A claim like that only shows off our ignorance of God.  I John 1: 8-10 MSG

            In the mishmash of tracks our society offers, in whose footprints am I placing my own? 


 Daye Phillippo

February 2015