Just For You!

I fondly remember a winter weekend in 1976, when Piper and I had just cleared the breakfast dishes off of our hand-me-down Formica kitchen table in our little apartment and began to talk about our first official summer vacation together.  We’d only been married for six or seven months but were eagerly looking past the cold winter season and longing for the warm summer months ahead.

My family were campers and to me… it was not a real summer vacation unless we went camping!  Piper didn’t come from a tradition of tent camping, but I had already successfully introduced her to the unique and wonderful pleasures of roughing it in the great outdoors through various retreats we had helped to plan with the College-Career group at her church and during a few days up in the redwoods at the end of our honeymoon. 

Piper had a special “Can-Do” attitude and possessed the knack of quickly adjusting to, and enjoying almost anything that came her way.  I remember watching her while she cooked a meal over the open fire on our honeymoon, and thinking of how fast she had adapted and made it look like she was such a natural at enjoying outdoor adventures… without any of the creature comforts she was used to!

So, on that Saturday morning, at the beginning of our marriage, we talked once again, about wanting to carve out some new adventures and develop unique traditions apart from the rest of our collective families.  We knew that we wanted to go camping that summer and decided to find a State Park where my family and I had never been. 

We wanted to find a special place to make into “our” special place… and that’s exactly how we ended up, in the spectacular Sierra’s on the other side of the state of California. It was far away from the coastal redwoods in the northeastern part of the state, and within sight of the Nevada border…  and the rest became Piper’s and my family’s history!  In fact, it was not only the location of our first official summer vacation together that year, but also of the very last that we would enjoy together in celebration of our 30^th Anniversary in 2005.

Psalm 37:23 tells us that,

“The steps of the God-pursuing ones follow firmly in the footsteps of the Lord, and God delights in every step they take to follow him.” (The Passion Translation) 

As it turned out, these words that the Psalmist wrote, formed a good foundation to the way that Piper and I attempted to live our lives.  I also think that they have an important message to everyone who reads this post.  The more traditional King James Version of this scripture reads,

“The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and He delighteth in his way.” 

When one breaks down the thought behind this verse, you discover that the Psalmist is addressing a particular type of individual.  The word ‘steps’ informs us that we are looking at a man or woman who walks in “companionship”* with someone else… and in this case, it describes the individual who walks in companionship with the Lord.

Then it begins to get interesting as the original Hebrew defines a ‘good man’ as “a valiant man (or woman), a warrior, a strong man – emphasizing strength and/or the ability to fight.”*  So this person is one who is ready to fight for the successful completion of what the Lord tells him or her to do or to attain what is rightfully theirs.

We also learn that the ‘steps’ of this “good man” are “ordered” of the Lord and that the Lord “delighteth” in this man or woman’s way.  And this is where it gets down-right exciting to me!

The original Hebrew tells us that the people’s ‘steps’ that are “ordered” by the Lord, are “set up, established and/or fixed in a great variety of applications”*  Which informs us that God has plans or ‘steps’ that are specifically and uniquely established for each of us… and that HE takes great ‘delight’ and/or pleasure with us, when we follow the special direction and way of life that He has painstakingly designed for us!

Th modern Passion Translation tells the story of how “the God-pursuing one’s follow FIRMLY in the footsteps of the Lord.” …by the footprints through which HE leads us both day and night.

I firmly believe that our Father God has pre-planned specific paths or ‘steps’ that HE desires each of us to walk, in our daily lives upon this earth… and as we determine (and maybe at times fight opposing forces in order) to follow His directions, HE delights in us and blesses us all along the way!

I know that for Piper and I, we made the (sometimes painful) decision early on, to seek the ‘DELIGHT’ and/or ‘APPROVAL’ of God… over the delight and/or approval of men.  Whether it was establishing new family traditions (while paying homage to past ones), changing church affiliations in order to continually grow and develop the burgeoning faith of our children, or following what we believed to be the ministry call on our lives, we did our best to be included in the heavenly roll-call of those known and shown (by precept and example) to be “the God-pursuing ones who follow firmly in the footsteps of the Lord…”

And you know… things were not always easy… in fact quite the opposite at times… but there’s really very little that I would change if I could do it all over again… and I am pretty certain that Piper is agreeing with me as she walks along the beautiful and wonder-filled trails in the magnificent mountains in heaven!

What about you?  Who do you seek to follow and DELIGHT in with the daily ‘steps’ that you take along the way of your life?  Where do you find yourself in our scripture verse today?

Have a terrific week!  We went from snow last week, to a warm weekend and now it is pouring outside!  No wonder Fiver is losing his undercoat… Welcome to the wonderful weather patterns of Oklahoma!  Be blessed… and as you do, keep EXPECTING His BEST as you follow the unique and special ‘steps’ that HE has designed just for YOU!

 

*Strong’s Hebrew and Greek Dictionaries/Brown-Driver-Briggs’ Hebrew Definitions