S4 E12 - The Struggle To Walk, The Joy To Watch

Our youngest, Finley, is 20 months and still not walking. She has struggled a lot, and after seeing an occupational therapist they have confirmed what we were seeing - that she has a prominent left side weakness. So, it's gonna take some work. But something special happened this week that's never happened before: she stood up on her own, and showed interest in trying. When she fell, she got back up, and she just kept going. We are overjoyed watching her walk, even through her struggles. 

Our walk of faith is much the same way. We are going to have our own weaknesses and struggles. But you know what? God is patient towards us. His grace is greater than our weaknesses, and he is there to catch us when we fall. Yes, the goal is for us to walk even better each day, but how overjoyed must our Father be just to watch his creation get up and desire to start walking closer to him. 

#SetYourMindAbovePodcast

Transcript

What if I told you that God could be seen in the most ordinary things every day? 

What if I told you that every day, ordinary events could teach us extraordinary eternal truths? Would you believe me? 

 Welcome back to season 4 of the Set Your Mind Above Podcast! My name is BJ Sipe, and I am a Christian, a preacher, a husband, and a father. And I’m excited to share a few moments together with you learning some important lessons from the simplest things. Thanks for tuning in! 

So, a little more personal with this podcast today, but I believe there is a very valuable lesson for us to see together by sharing with you. As you probably know by now, God has blessed us with three beautiful and wonderful children. Ava is our oldest, a brilliant five year old who cannot wait for her first year of school to start this fall. Dane is our four year old superhero, he is all boy and an absolute goofball. And then Finley is our 1 year old who will be 2 in September, and she just loves to try and keep up with her brother and sister no matter what they are doing. The problem is, she has a very hard time keeping up with them, because even at almost 20 months she is still not walking. As a matter of fact, Finley is not even a crawler. She is our bum scooter – and always has been for about the past year now. Over the past few months, we have worked really hard at trying to get her to walk, but nothing seemed to have worked. Also, the more we tried, the more we saw her struggling – especially on her left side. It always seemed to give out, to be a source of frustration for her because of an apparent weakness. This last week on Monday we finally were referred to an occupational therapist to have them assess Finley and try to get to the root of what is going on.  Thankfully, they ruled out the possibility of a stroke that could have taken place in utero, as she showed no other symptoms that would be evident by now. From what we have gathered, the way that Finley has scooted around for the past year has trained her right leg to develop like it should but has left her left leg quite underdeveloped from where it should be. So, going forward, we will be going up to Richmond and Lexington once a week for Finley to see a specialized chiropractor as well as the occupational therapist. The OT gave Kylie some ideas and tips of things to try more at home in the meantime, so after the older two went to bed we took Finley into her carpeted room and started to see if we could get her to practice with us. What happened next was nothing short of incredible. Finley, while still very much struggling on her left side, stood up without any assistance from the ground onto her own two feet – and took a few very hobbled steps towards Kylie. Then she said something that brought tears to my eyes, “I walk again, I walk to daddy.” She has never expressed interest in wanting to walk. Every time she has fallen, she’s wanted to stay down and not keep going. But even with her shaky legs, even with many falls, she kept standing back up and working her way back over towards Kylie or me. Over this past week, she’s started to be able to walk a little farther and farther. And though very slow and with difficulty, at one point she even walked about 20 feet from our kitchen to her bedroom – smiling and giggling the entire way with her little scrunched up nose. Obviously, there is still a lot of work to be done, and there are many things that we still need to address with her walking – but I’m just overjoyed that she has a desire to. It doesn’t matter how many times she falls so long as she keeps getting back up again and keeps struggling through it, and we’re always going to be here to help her along the way. 

I didn’t think I would be this emotional watching my youngest daughter struggle to walk and finally show an interest in it. But it’s been a roller coaster. I’ve been discouraged because she has struggled so much, and I’ve wanted nothing more than to just take it for her so she could walk unhindered. I’ve been overwhelmed, thinking about how long of a journey this potentially could have been before we had some answers. I’m now feeling overjoyed, watching her with glee gimp her way across the room and into my arms. And it makes me wonder…how must our heavenly Father feel as he watches us in our walk of faith? 

In Ephesians 4:1, Paul would write and say, “Therefore I, the prisoner in the Lord, urge you to walk worthy of the calling you have received.” Our relationship with God, this journey of faith, is often referred to as “our walk” in Scripture. Paul would tell the Corinthians that “we walk by faith, not by sight.” (2 Cor. 5:7) and tell the Galatians, “walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” (Gal. 5:16).  This is our goal, to walk worthy of the calling to which we have been called. To overcome the weakness of our flesh and learn to walk in agreement with the Spirit. But, if you are like me, your walk has not always been easy. Because of our own respective weaknesses of our flesh, we are hindered in our walk with God. We struggle. We fall on account of our sin. Our path we walk is not as straight and narrow as it ought to be. 

How does this make God feel? Now, please don’t misunderstand me – sin must be put away from us in our lives. We are called to repent and no longer be a slave to sin, but to “walk in newness of life.” (see Romans 6). But my friends, that is a process. Just as children learning to walk don’t just get up and start walking or running flawlessly, neither will we. Do you not think our Father understands this? Do you not think he is patient and gracious towards us? I know he is. We read in 1 John 1:5-7, “This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light, and there is absolutely no darkness in him. If we say, “We have fellowship with him,” and yet we walk in darkness, we are lying and are not practicing the truth. If we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” Walking in the light does not mean we are going to walk perfectly…but it does mean we have a genuine desire to keep growing. That when we fall, we get back up and struggle through to draw closer and closer to our Father, to walk more and more unincumbered. And all the while, he is patient and gracious towards us – and his grace is greater than our weaknesses. 

But more than anything, as I heard my daughter say to me, “I walk again, I walk to daddy,” the words of the apostle John came to my mind from his third letter, “I have no greater joy than this: to hear that my children are walking in truth.” (3 John 4) My friends, if John has no greater joy than to hear of the children of God walking in the truth…how must our heavenly Father feel? I can only imagine the joy of our creator when he sees one of his own decide to get up and start walking in faith, to start making those steps towards him. Are they going to walk perfectly? No. Are they going to be hindered by their own weaknesses that need addressed? Absolutely. But you know what? They want to do it, and they’re ready to do it. I can’t imagine a greater joy that our Father has than watching his children draw closer and closer to him. If you’re listening today and you’ve not started your own journey of faith, stand up. Get up off the floor and take that very first step towards our loving and gentle Father. His arms are ready to catch you when you fall, and as you draw near to Him, He will in turn draw near to you. 

This has been the Set Your Mind Above Podcast, season 4 episode 12 – and I’m so thankful that you decided to tune in today! A new episode is dropped most Fridays, so be sure to tune in next week.  Also, if you’re able to, go ahead and like and subscribe to the podcast, as well as share it with someone else – it would help me greatly in trying to reach others. And more than anything, always remember the following: know that I love you, that God loves you, and may we all each and every day set our minds above.