Just Keep Going!

“Just Keep Going”

“Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, 

I am he who will sustain you. 

I have made you and I will carry you; 

I will sustain you and I will rescue you.”

Isaiah 46:4 NIV

This past summer my dad took us to Michigan on vacation.  My only request was to go to Sleepy Bear Dunes. I had heard how breathtaking it was and how beautiful Lake Michigan was at that spot. 

We had finally arrived at the Dune Climb at Sleepy Bear Dunes!  We climbed over the first big dune and we thought that we would see the lake, boy were we all wrong!Everywhere we looked all we saw was more & more dunes. SAND EVERYWHERE! Some of the dunes were small, but most of them were MASSIVE.  We soon found out that it was a 3.5 mile round trip through deep sand and over steep dunes. As we journeyed, we were hot, tired, sweaty, and our muscles were screaming at us.  Part of us wanted to stop.

Thats when I sensed God whispering:  “If you don't keep going you'll never know what you're missing up ahead.  Why justlook from a distance when you can take the extra steps to be able to feel it and touch it and see it close-up.” A lot of people can see the view from far away but you have to have the endurance and the will to seek it out. It's the same thing in our spiritual walk. We encounter things that leave us exhausted, sweaty & hurting. But if we don't have the endurance to keep on going, one foot in front of the  other on our journey, we will miss what's ahead.

Along the way my daughter, Sarah, who has Type 1 Diabetes didn't think she could make it any farther. So my nephew Brandon, stopped, picked her up and carried her up the hills that she could no longer climb. He was hot, tired, & didn’t think he could make it either. But he picked her up and carried her off and on until we made it to the lake. That was an amazing visual of what Jesus does for us.  We are all on journeys in our life. Sometimes the journeys are long and hard. Sometimes we don't think we can go any further. We are at our weakest. But Jesus is right beside us, encouraging us and sometimes carrying us when we don't have the strength to make it any farther.

Once Sarah knew that she was being carried and didn't have to walk the rest of the way by  herself, she didn't have to rely on her own strength. Her whole countenance changed. How her spirits were lifted. She was no longer sad and weary & tired. She began smiling and realized she was going to be able to make it to the end. 

And oh what a magnificent view we saw at the end. To see the beauty of Lake Michigan, to feel the cool water. I wouldn’t have wanted to miss any of it.

Music For Reflection:

*Press On by Mandisa