5th Gear: Life not a List

5th Gear: Life not a List

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Over the past two weeks, we have introduced the “Walk & Talk” practice, with both our spouses and our children. Walking and talking lends itself to conversations we might not have sitting face to face. I have found this to happen just as frequently and naturally during walking and talking with my Father and my Savior as well.

Dallas Willard captures this walk-and-talk idea perfectly with these observations:

God wants us to be in a “conversational walk through life, talking with him about what we are doing together.” 

Then we begin to understand that God’s whole purpose is to bring us to the point where He can walk with us quietly, calmly and constantly, leaving us space to grow to be His (often fumbling) collaborators – to have some distance from Him and yet to be united with Him because we are being conformed to the image of His son, bearing the family resemblance.  (Dallas Willard Hearing God)

Jesus invites us into a walking & talking relationship that can, and will, transform our day-to-day experience and, more importantly, transform us more and more into the likeness of his Son, bearing the Family resemblance.

A Life not a List

And please do not miss this: Jesus invites you into a Life in which he walks with you, not a List he expects you to work out on your own. A “Walking Life with,” not a “Working List alone.”

So What?

These days, walking & talking with Jesus, “quietly and constantly,” has helped to unite me with him, and to carry me further along the path of being “conformed to the image of His Son, bearing the family resemblance.”

This is, after all, our destiny. The Holy Spirit makes this crystal clear in Romans 8:29:

For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son …

Is this conforming destiny good news or bad news? We might be tempted to automatically say, “Good news!” and of course it is. However, this type of transformation will not be an easy walk in the park. Not, at least, if that walk in the park is us trying to work out a checklist on our own.

No, this conforming destiny is made so much easier and so much more possible when we listen to Jesus’ invitation to walk with him in Matthew 11:28-30:

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

We are all looking for that “soul rest.” Only Jesus can deliver it.

If you want a little more:

That is the NIV translation. Now listen to the Message translation:

Come to me. Get away with me and you will recover your life.
Walk with me and work with me – watch how I do it.
Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.
Keep company with me and you will learn to live freely and lightly.

May you learn to live freely and lightly, in your conversational walk and talk each day, talking with Jesus about what you two are doing together.