Feeble footsteps forward are better than no footsteps at all. In the course of a year, moving forward one inch a day gets us a lot further than no movement. We often cower in the face of the mighty things in our walk with God, such as prayer, fasting, working through deep-rooted issues of the heart (fear, anger, etc.). We see these things as mountains or marathons—unattainable, insurmountable.
But God defines mighty differently than we do. He does not call “mighty” that which is easy for us to do in our own strength. What He calls mighty is the movement of our hearts to keep putting one foot forward again and again when it’s hard, seemingly unrewarding and weak.
God uses the “smallness” of our steps to produce humility in us rather than an arrogant, self-sufficient spirit. God does not despise feeble footsteps; it is we, who wrongly measure our growth in comparison with others, who negate their worth.
There is great fortitude in feeble footsteps.
Some of the things that keep me from valuing and taking feeble footsteps are:
1. Comparison. I disqualify the worth of my “baby step” by comparing it to the seemingly big step of another. I say, “Since my step is small, I might as well not take it at all.”
2. Excuses and Blame-shifting. Such as: “It’s too hard to fast when you’re a mom. It’s too hard to abstain from food when I’m serving it to my kids.” The truth: Where there’s a will, there’s a way. (What about starting with no sweets? This can go a long way when all you want is some chocolate to ease your frazzles from a full day!) The kind of excuse we tend to entertain the most is blame-shifting. For example: “I just can’t live with a joyful heart when I am regularly treated so rudely.”
Hmm… NOTE TO SELF: There is ultimately only one garden you’ve been commissioned to tend and keep: yours. You will not give account for your brother’s mistreatment of you. But you will give account for what you grow in your own garden in response.
3. Waiting for the desire. “Since I don’t want to fast and pray out of legalism, I will wait until I have desire.” The problem is I stopped asking God to give me desire, to enlarge my heart, to draw me. Oops—big oops. (The glorious thing is that when He does put desire in me, I will have humility in the thing because I’ll know where I was before His help came.)
I’ve found that hunger begets hunger. When He gives hunger to take a feeble footstep forward, soon I am hungry to take another step and another—faster and further-reaching. Then suddenly, like a wee-one who has learned to walk, I realize I can run! …But not without taking feeble footsteps over and over, until the muscles have been trained in the motion!
Here are some synonyms for fortitude: Strength, Courage, Resilience, Guts, Staying power, Grit, Stamina, Determination, Endurance.
This is where feeble footsteps lead!
Every marathon runner was once a baby who learned not to despise the smallness of his/her steps. Each mountain climber was once a toddler who learned to get up after he/she fell down.
And even once we are grown… A marathon is only completed one step at a time. Not even the weakest step should be despised.
Oh, the fortitude of feeble footsteps! How can we expect to move forward without them?