The Key is: Keep Walking!

Life has many challenges and seemingly insurmountable obstacles. What shall be done about it? Nothing? Or Something? But what?

Musk, Mandela, Churchill, King

Some people want to get rich and say, 'get rich or die trying!' At least they tried. Elon Musk wants to go to Mars - we'll see whether he'll succeed. If he doesn't, at least, he tried. Nelson Mandela became the first black President of South Africa, a country that was an apartheid state run by white people - against all the odds, he made it. Yet only after a 27-year prison sentence! He said, 'It always seems impossible until it's done.' He was right. He actually used his time in prison to prepare for the future; he didn't become resentful. Whatever life throws at you, use the time and circumstances given to grow and prepare for a better future. Keep walking!

Winston Churchill, England's Wartime Prime Minister, kept encouraging the English to keep going - 'If you're going through hell, keep going!' Don't stay there, find a way out. Yes, bombardments of Nazi planes must have felt like hell on earth. My English grandfather was only a young teenager when he dug out body parts in the London bombings...

Martin Luther King Jr. faced seemingly impossible circumstances and encouraged his compatriots in the struggle for equality with these words:

'If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.'

The key is: Keep Walking! You simply can't defeat a person that refuses to give up.

Success from Failure

Winston Churchill once described success as the constant 'going from failure to failure without the loss of enthusiasm'! How's that for a different perspective on success? You know the stories: Thomas Edison and others made thousands of failed experiments - or where they stepping stones for success? That's how John Maxwell describes such 'failures.' They are simply part of life. Accept it, try and again and keep walking!

Life is about how hard you can get hit and still get up and keep fighting - Rocky Balboa made that clear to his son in an emphatic way. Life throws punches at us; it's unavoidable. Learn to stand and fight. Learn to handle life and do the right thing no matter what. And remember, 'it's not what others do wrong, it's what you do right,' as a friend of mine keeps saying. Always do the right thing. Learn how to keep moving forward. Keep walking! Don't blame others and give up. As Rocky said, 'You're better than that!' You can rise from failure to success. Choose life. Choose the future. Keep walking!

Johnny Walker: Keep Walking!

Ironically, the whiskey brand Johnny Walker states, 'Keep walking' in their advertisment. I always wonder how that is supposed to work... In my own experience, it's not that easy to keep walking when you had too much whisky =;-)

Is alcohol the answer to drown one's sorrows? We all know the answer to that. Here's what an ancient wise man said:

'Wine is a mocker, strong drink is a brawler, and whoever is led astray by it is not wise.'

Proverbs 20:1

Alcohol abuse 'bites like a serpent and stings like a viper.' Indeed, 'Your eyes will see strange things, and your heart will utter perverse things' (Proverbs 23:32-34). The consequences are dramatic. We give up on life, we lose our sight on what is important, beautiful and precious, and the vision for the future. Because of this degraded inner condition of the heart, we start to 'utter perverse things,' we speak nonsense out of resentment and despair. Don't walk down that route. Don't turn to alcohol; turn to God! There's a better way to keep walking.

The Spirit instead of Spirits

Scripture encourages us to be 'filled with the Spirit' - the Spirit of God - not with wine (Ephesians 5:18). This is the way to be 'wise' in the 'evil days' we are living in (vv 15-16) and to understand the will of God (v 17). God empowers us for life! We don't nee to despair; there's hope. Singing songs, 'psalms, hymns and spiritual songs' from a happy heart (v 19) is melody, joy and healing to a hurting soul. Paul wants us to express that. Blues musicians with perhaps too much Johnny Walker have sung powerful emotive songs expressing their misery. There is comfort in finding someone who understands our pain, but is it the key to finding the way to a better life and future? We recommend a life filled with God's Spirit, the quality of Heaven, and a lifestyle of gratitude (v 20). A happy heart and gratitude help us to keep walking.

The Word instead of crazy Ideas

The parallel passage to Ephesians 5 is Colossians 3. Again Paul encourages believers to strengthen, encourage and comfort one another with 'psalms, hymns and spiritual songs,' such that flow from 'the Word of Christ' that should dwell richly within us (v 16). This comes from a heart ruled by 'the peace of God' (v 15), a heavenly peace (John 14:27), that transcends human thinking capacities and guards our hearts in the troubles of life (Philippians 4:7). This is the anti-dote to keep walking inspired by the Spirit and Word of God, not the Spirits of alcohol and crazy ideas that drives us mad and leave us desitute with false promises. God's Word is the key; His Spirit empowers us to live successful and victoriously. Our faith must be based on Christ and His Word.

'For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world - our faith.'

1 John 5:4

There is victory in the midst of trouble. Christ has overcome the world (John 16:33). His Word guides us, His Spirit empowers us, His light shines on our path into the future. We walk in the truth; we walk by His Spirit; we walk in the light. The key is to Keep Walking!

Keep Walking!