Walking with God...

Do you ever feel things in your gut, before you make sense of them with your brain? Or experience emotion so strongly you need to move to express it?

We are not simply brains encased in flesh,  we are bodies and our feeling and experiences are held in our bodies and in traumatic times, it has been said that our bodies keep the score (Bessel A. Van Der Kolk has written a book with this title) but at the moment so much of our spiritual lives involves sitting at a computer screen, either accessing worship through Facebook or Zoom or some other live streaming. Our bodies probably need something else as well.

Here is a suggestion, remembering that we have traditions of prayer walks and pilgrimages, use your exercise time to walk (or run) with God, begin with intercession, you probably know some Key workers, who are at greater risk than the rest of us, pray for them, you may know people who can not leave their houses (you maybe one of them and I will conclude with how to do this indoors) remember them too, talk to God about all the people you are anxious about. Now take a moment to notice where you are, what can you see, hear, smell, feel, taste. By doing so you are placing yourself in the present, finally tell God what you are feeling. There is something about addressing this stuff whilst we are on the move, that involves our bodies, and liberates our feelings and thoughts. If you are shielding and can not leave the house, you can move from the door, where you pray for those on the other side of it, to your window to notice the world and finally perhaps to the kitchen to make yourself a drink and tell God what is going on as you wait for the kettle to boil.

You may want a thought to complete your walk, here are two possibilities that open us up to thankfulness and remind us that God walks with us 

A wandering Aramean was my father,
he went down to Egypt and sojourned there,
he and just a handful of his brothers at first, but soon
they became a great nation, mighty and many.
The Egyptians abused and battered us,
in a cruel and savage slavery.
We cried out to God, the God-of-Our-Fathers:
He listened to our voice, he saw
our destitution, our trouble, our cruel plight.
And God took us out of Egypt
with his strong hand and long arm, terrible and great,
with signs and miracle-wonders.
And he brought us to this place,
gave us this land flowing with milk and honey.
So here I am. I’ve brought the firstfruits
of what I’ve grown on this ground you gave me, O God. (Deuteronomy 26)


One night I dreamed a dream.
As I was walking along the beach with my Lord.
Across the dark sky flashed scenes from my life.
For each scene, I noticed two sets of footprints in the sand,
One belonging to me and one to my Lord.
After the last scene of my life flashed before me,
I looked back at the footprints in the sand.
I noticed that at many times along the path of my life,
especially at the very lowest and saddest times,
there was only one set of footprints.
This really troubled me, so I asked the Lord about it.
"Lord, you said once I decided to follow you,
You'd walk with me all the way.
But I noticed that during the saddest and most troublesome times of my life,
there was only one set of footprints.
I don't understand why, when I needed You the most, You would leave me."
He whispered, "My precious child, I love you and will never leave you
Never, ever, during your trials and testings.
When you saw only one set of footprints,
It was then that I carried you."

(FootPrints)