mall walkers

Mall walkers are intense.

If you are unfamiliar with the term . . . mall walkers are those people who go to the mall and walk inside the perimeter in order to get exercise. Most of the time these people are older and many times they are retired.

I have seen many mall walkers in my days. And every time I see them, I am amazed / scared at their intensity.

I know some mall walkers, and when I run into them in the mall, they are so focused they barely take the moment to recognize your presence.

I am afraid to know what might happen if you got in their way, or tried to stop them and talk to them.

The thing about mall walkers is they are focused. Each step is intentional. They have chosen to be there to exercise and nothing is getting in their way of accomplishing that goal.
I don’t think I will ever be a mall walker.

But mall walkers got me thinking . . . actually I had been reading . . . and things just started to connect.

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So if you have been reading my blogs then you know that I have been reading through the book of Jeremiah lately.

And as I have been reading there have been some big themes that have been popping out.

1) Why do God’s people suffer?
2) Why do evil people prosper?

These are two big questions that Jeremiah wrestles with. Now before I go on, I don’t want to say this is how things always are . . . but this is how things were for Jeremiah, and that’s how things have started to connect for me . . . so that’s where we start.

Issue # 1 – why God’s people suffer?

So for Jeremiah the question of why God’s people suffer was answered simply
“because they have turned away from Me (God)”

The New American Standard Version paints this picture of “turning away” as walking away. I think that picture is extremely accurate for what happens.

Over and over again Jeremiah says that God’s people walked after things other than God, and that they chose paths which did not include God.

Big point: So one reason why God’s people suffer is because they have walked away from God and toward other things.

Issue # 2 – why evil people prosper ?

God answers this second answer simply as well.

“don’t worry about them . . . I will deal with them”

This isn’t the answer Jeremiah wants . . . because if God’s people are going to suffer, then it makes sense that those people who don’t love or follow God should suffer too.

But God reassures Jeremiah over and over again that He will judge the wicked.

Big point: God will deal with the wicked in his time, they will not go un-judged.

so let’s bring this all together . . . what happens when you put . . .

mall walkers , suffering godly people, prospers evil doers, and God?
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I don’t know about you but I have felt like Jeremiah felt. Actually I can feel what Jeremiah felt right now in my life. I feel like my life is falling apart and I cry out to God and I ask why would you do this? Why would you let this happen to me ? Haven’t I always done my best to serve you ? Haven’t I done my best to live my life for you? Why do I suffer ? Or are you even there ?

I also look at the world, and even people in my life and wonder how God could allow them to have such a good life, when they don’t care what He says, or what He wants from them.
I know what these things feel like

So again I question . . . God where are you in all of this ?

I think we all do this . . . question if God is really there.
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So let’s connect

When we call God’s presence into question we are really just vocalizing or realizing that we don’t feel close to God.

For Jeremiah God’s people were far from God because they walked away from him.

This walking thing is huge. Walking is an intentional thing. You don’t just randomly walk. Walking isn’t an involuntary action. Walking requires purpose. You choose where you are going to go, and then you put one foot in front of another until you get there.

Just like mall walkers . . . there is a purpose, a focus, a goal.

So why is it that God describe what happened to his people as their walking away ?

Sometimes we say that Christians have fallen away, or wandered from the path. Both of those phrases seem very “accidental.” Like you were just living your life for Jesus and then one day . . . oops . . . you accidentally were living for something else.

God describes the relationship, the dynamic as our walking away. Our purposeful choosing.
That changes everything . . . doesn’t it.

Let me be clear . . . I’m not saying that we sit around as Christians as say . . .” ok, tomorrow I am going to stop loving God”

But what we do, is we make active choices that go against God, and we think that we will be ok. That somehow we can knowingly choose against God, and it won’t be “a deal breaker” with him.
And as we make that choice against him, we take one step away from him, and then the next time we choose “not Him” we take another step, and another, and another.

The feeling of being far away from God has nothing to do with what God is or is not doing . . . but has everything to do with our choices, our lives, and what we are purposefully walking toward each day.

Rob Bell puts it this way,

“God is always present. We are the ones who show up.”

God’s point to Jeremiah was that, He had always and would always be God. Jeremiah didn’t have to worry about it. But what Jeremiah needed to do, was to walk toward God. And to encourage , lead , and direct his people to do the same thing.

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So if you are feeling far away from God. Know this . . . you may have walked away. He is there. But maybe you aren’t. That’s not a great thing to hear, but healing comes from being honest with yourself. Maybe today you need to admit to yourself, and a close friend that you haven’t been walking toward God. But you have been walking toward other things (school, friends, job, bf / gf , popularity, video games, shopping, etc.)

That could be your first step back toward God.

Because as crazy as this life can be . . . it really is as simple as walking.
Take the step today toward God, then tomorrow take the next step. Then the next and the next.

Pursue God with the intensity of a mall walker, and you won’t have anything to worry about. God is there and he is doing his job. So let’s do ours, and walk toward him

For my King
-devin