by J. Randal Matheny

[Editor's note: Randal is doubling his article from UPLift, his personal list. uplift-subscribe@associate.com He doesn't do it often so we'll forgive him ... this once.]

Ever notice how people walk? Each person seems to have a characteristic manner. Some are pigeon-toed, others bow-legged, still others seem to stick their feet way out front while the head and body follow far behind.

Men walk differently from women.

Some walk faster than others.

When I was a kid, I knew a Christian who, as a native American descendent, walked on the balls of his feet.

Walking is even the object of scientific study. See if you can adjust the options in this link to approximate your walk:

www.bml.psy.ruhr-uni-bochum.de

Fun to fiddle with that, isn't it?

The Bible presents life as a walk that can be enjoyable, fulfilling, and rewarding./1 But we need to adjust that walk to the appropriate standards to make it what it should be. So Paul says in Ephesians 5:15, "Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise."

Though the Bible gives many descriptions of how we should and shouldn't walk, perhaps one sums it up best, "walk in the same way in which he [Jesus] walked" (1 John 2:6).

So our life as a walk could stand some serious adjustments, couldn't it?/2

1/ In the NT epistles, the NIV often removes the figure and speaks of "living." 2/ Do a word search in a version like the ESV for "walk" and see, especially in the epistles, how this figure is used: www.biblegateway.com