One step at a time

Psalm 119:89-93, 105 (NRSV)

The Lord exists for ever; your word is firmly fixed in heaven. Your faithfulness endures to all generations; you have established the earth, and it stands fast. By your appointment they stand today, for all things are your servants. If your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my misery. I will not forget your precepts, for by them you have given me life... Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.


There are not many places left where we experience anything like complete darkness, but one such place lingers in my memory. It was just a small village in the Cumbrian hills, dark enough on a moonless winter night for the unwary walker to go seriously astray. Sometimes, during holidays there, I would go for a nocturnal walk, carrying a small pocket torch. The pool of light it shed was just about sufficient to illuminate the ground immediately in front of my feet. If I tried to focus the beam on to the road ahead, the light would simply be swallowed up by the ravenous night. I quickly learned to be content with seeing just one step ahead.

The words of hope today might have been written for someone stumbling along in the dark like that. 'However shaky I may be feeling, the Lord is firm. If it were not so, I would have lost my way long ago.' God is like that beam of light, unfailingly lighting up our next step, while we keep straining to see a few miles ahead so that we can make plans and take control.

Control isn't on offer. Instead, we are asked to trust-to focus our gaze on the pool of God's light in the present moment and not on the darkness that still lies ahead. Our hope is in the promise that amid all the confusion and obscurity of our life's pathway, the next step will be illuminated by God's love and grace. It's a promise we can trust. God has been faithful all along the journey so far, and he will not fail us in the steps that lie ahead, provided we take them one at a time.

Reflection
Try living today one moment at a time, paying attention to God's light shining on your next step.



Margaret Silf


[from New Daylight September - December 2007]