I love walking on Mondays. I hate walking on Mondays. I try to do a 2-mile worship walk each day except Sunday. I get my 10K steps in most every day, but that 2-mile jaunt gets my steps up quickly. Then the remainder of the day’s total is usually garnered in 1K step increments. I used to be able to do 3 miles but with aging and balance issues I step more carefully and slowly. So 2 miles it is, six days a week, most every week.
After not doing that 2-mile worship walk on Sunday, I am eager to get going again on Monday. Can’t wait to fire up my MP3 player with my worship music and set out. That’s the part I love. The part I hate? Monday is garbage day in our area and the stench that emanates from almost every can is distracting (to say the least).
This past Monday I got past the cans and crossed over into a developing area where people are not yet living and not yet making garbage. A song came on my MP3, one I’ve heard hundreds of times. I began to sing with it, and as I did I began to cry and worship. Immediately, I was keenly aware of the depth of my own sinfulness. I remembered the words of David: “[The Lord] lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God.” [Ps 40:2-3 NIV]
I remembered the slimy pit, I remembered the mud and mire. I remembered what I was and would be again if He ever withdrew His grace from my life. I do not live in that pit any more, I live in the family of God by His grace. However, I realized as I walked and wept and sang and praised that it is a good thing on occasion to remember our pit since it makes us appreciate all the more the saving grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the heights to which He has raised us.
