“Give thanks in all circumstances;
for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”
1 Thessalonians 5:18
An Ordinary Walk
My husband Kurt and I walk every day. A week ago, last Thursday, I marveled at the beautiful day, exclaiming, “It’s summer! Kurt, it’s the first day of summer–finally! Listen to the birds! Look at the baby ducks! Oh, Kurt, I’ve waited months and months for this.”
A few steps further, I stopped mid-stride and said in a quieter voice, “Kurt, I never appreciated spring.”
That’s a slight exaggeration, but only slight. I walk every day. For 1,455 days I’ve walked—many of those days in the cold, in the rain, in the wind, anxiously awaiting warm, dry days, light breezes all about. And in my zeal to welcome the joys of summer, I feel like I let the newness of spring escape me, the awakening of nature slip by, the renewal of God’s most wonderful creation overlooked in my focus on next.
For the remainder of my walk, I thought back on the previous weeks. I knew we’d had a lot going on, but I wanted to remember it: Memorial Day, Lent and Easter, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, Wednesday and Thursday playdates. Harder to remember were what we’d been doing on an ordinary afternoon in April, an early morning in May. I remembered blooming snowdrops, but what about the irises?
Like so many of us, I get excited by what’s ahead. I got to speak to at a community event in Wilbur. Kurt and I got away to Palm Springs. I got to enjoy the release of my first children’s book. The weeks sped by and I found myself looking back, not sure I truly enjoyed and appreciated the moments at hand. I was always looking ahead, anxiously awaiting “next.”
Remembering my walks, for weeks and months, I slogged through the cold and wet, thinking I just need to get through the next twenty minutes, I just need to tackle one more month of wintery 40-degree weather, one more season of brutal cold. And then spring came and I was so into survival mode that I missed the wonder of the season.
I can do that with God too. I think about my prayers. I want this; I want that. I want to get there; I want to get that. I want to get through this; I want to get out of that. And in doing so, I can miss the beauty of now, the wonder and awesomeness of this very moment, the great joy of God’s transforming love and faithfulness.
I’m a writer, for goodness sakes. My stories are not about the summer times in my life; they’re about the falls and winters, the spring times. I describe days that got colder, experiences that found me bundled up against the elements, changes that found me with a new lease on life, as they say. They’re the stories that mattered; they’re the stories that found me growing the most, that I treasure, that I will never forget.
Today’s title started as “Waiting on God.” While true, it doesn’t tell the whole story. It’s really about finding God’s extraordinary in our ordinary—while we wait on God. In doing so, we honor God’s will, His way and His when. We also honor what He’s doing now—right now. We honor the preparations He’s making in our life, the turns He needs us to make, the redirections He finds necessary, the changes around us that might have nothing to do with my prayer requests.
And while those changes are happening, we get to enjoy the first roses of spring, the warmth of an April afternoon, fall’s crispness and colors, and winter’s quiet.
God treasures our hopes and dreams. God loves walking with us as we strive. He also loves when we stop and say, “Wow!”
My grandson just moved with his family to Arizona. I know we will continue to have a delightful relationship. I’ll see him on family vacations, holidays, and visits to the desert. We’ll have great times together. What I’ll miss is the ordinary—ordinary Wednesdays when we’re sitting side by side reading our books, ordinary afternoons when we’re finding a new park to visit, ordinary sleepovers with a trip to the Lego store.
Whether we’re enjoying an ordinary adventure with a seven-year old or an ordinary adventure with God, it’s the best. It will always be the best.
Don’t miss it!
Deanna Nowadnick is the author of four books:
Fruit of My Spirit, Signs in Life, Bouquet of Wisdom, and “Grandma, You Found Me!”
