Scripture Walks; these are a few of my favorite things
It’s important to know where I’m coming from in this…
Aside from having our schedules thrown off, we haven’t experienced personal hardship in this quarantine. My family hasn’t had job loss or sick relatives. When I share the things I’ve valued in this time of being paused, it’s never my intention to minimize the real pain, loss, and fear others are experiencing. If I seem callous to that pain, know that I don’t take it lightly that this is an unbelievably trying time for so many.
It does feel like the world is on pause. Everything is kind of put on hold until things can go back to normal (whenever that may be). There are things we used to take for granted we don’t anymore. Last week, I found myself awake in the middle of the night googling toilet paper alternatives. That’s something I never thought would be in my search history. I’ve never seen so many people taking walks. In our suburban neighborhood, I’m used to only seeing the fellow dog owners and a few kids chalking or riding bikes. Now, everyone is out and about. The sidewalks have never seen such action. Last week a food truck came to our neighborhood for the afternoon. It looked like a street festival (one where everyone stayed approximately six feet from one another of course).
With this uptick of neighborhood walks, I thought I should share one of my favorite things -scripture walks. Although this sounds super spiritual, for me, it started a few years back when I was behind on my reading for Bible study. I had group the next morning and was about a week behind in my reading, so I took a walk and used that time to listen to the Bible. When I got to group, I found that even though I hadn’t physically read the words, I remembered so much more from the text. I know this isn’t true for everyone. When I talk about the audiobooks I listen to, there are always people who say, “I can never focus when I listen to audiobooks.” And those people are right. Some of us are auditory learners and some aren’t. However, if you do learn by listening, scripture walks may be for you.
We have a park near our house that’s pretty much just a short walking trail and a couple of covered picnic tables. In this time at home, that park has been life-giving to me and my family. The walking trail goes through a wooded area. If you really focus, you can see houses on the other side, but if you focus on what’s inside, it’s just nature. Beautiful, calm, life-giving nature. I did a scripture walk through the trail a couple of weeks ago and everything came into sharp focus for the first time since we were urged to stay home.
We live in a time where it’s never been easier to listen to the Bible. I remember bulky, expensive CD sets at our local Christian book store when I was a teen. Gone are the days. If you’re familiar with the Bible app, you have the option to have the scripture read to you from your phone. I’m sure this is a feature many of you take advantage of, but I still thought it was worth a mention just in case.
These are tough times. Even without personal hardship, I’ve found it difficult to feel like myself. I rely heavily on my routine and that’s been thrown out the window. Walks and scripture are two things that ground me. That make me feel hopeful and peaceful. I hope you can find hope and peace in scripture walks. I’d also love to hear what things have given you comfort in the midst of all this uncertainty. Feel free to comment below with anything that’s worked for you.
God isn’t surprised by any of this. He knows this is a struggle for all of us. So, let’s use this pause as a time to allow Him to speak to us. However you engage scripture, I pray you’ll allow it to give you hope and peace. We have a God who loves us more than we can fathom. Let’s get walking so He can do some talking.
Blessings,
Shannon