Get Walking
What’s the best walk you went on in 2025?
I came across this question in an annual review and planning questionnaire for goal-setting. My first reaction was, Walk? Who evaluates their yearly walks? Maybe hikers, but even though I like the occasional hike, I don’t usually rank them.
But then a walk came to mind. My husband, my youngest, and I drove to my son’s college for his birthday and took a beautiful fall stroll in the woods as a family. We didn’t know where we were going, and we weren’t in any hurry, just enjoying each other’s company. It was an awesome day and made for a great memory.
My husband and I also walk around the town of Franklin, MA, while my son wrestles at his club. It became a great way for us to talk and decompress from the day. We walked the same route so regularly that people thought we lived there and waved to us as if we were their neighbors.
Walking together has a way of bonding people. It’s a form of fellowship. You have a chance to converse and observe the surroundings together. Walking sets us in harmony, because we must fall into step with one another. It’s also a great low-impact form of exercise that requires effort, getting our hearts pumping and blood flowing.
Like a regular walk, a spiritual walk requires fellowship, harmony, and effort, but also faith. Genesis 5:24 states, “Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.” God and Enoch had an intimate relationship. I’ve heard it joked that God told Enoch, “We’re closer to my house than yours. Why don’t you just come home with me?” And then Enoch faded into the sunset.
While we, too, may desire to walk with God as Enoch did, the question is how?
Walking in the Spirit requires fellowship and effort. We must seek God and get to know him. The great part is that God promises we’ll find Him if we seek Him with our whole hearts (Jeremiah 29:13). He also desires that we walk humbly with Him. Micah 6:8 says, “And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” The walk will be smoother if God is choosing the direction and the timing, and we don’t demand our way (Proverbs 3:5-6).
Walking in the Spirit requires harmony. Humble obedience to God will help us to walk in harmony with Him. Enoch lived in a time when there were many evil men. We see this in the story of Noah’s time. Enoch was Noah’s great-grandfather, but this evil accumulated over time, starting with Eve eating from the forbidden fruit. However, it escalated to the point of God sending a flood to wipe out everything except those on Noah’s ark. Enoch had refused to join the wicked, and this trait was passed down to his great-grandson Noah. Galatians 5:16 tells us that walking in the Spirit will keep us in line with His ways. “So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.”
Walking in the Spirit requires faith. Which means trusting God with the path He’s chosen. Not all roads are fun to walk down, but when you know who’s beside you, you’re not afraid because you know God will make it better. David understood that, even though he walked through the valley of the shadow of death, God was with him and they would pass through together (Psalm 23:4).
Keep walking with God, keep walking in the spirit. The direction and timing may be up to God, but the walking is up to us.