Most mornings I take a long walk to start my day. I walk for
both physical and spiritual reasons. It keeps me in shape and I pray about
things while I walk. One of my favorite places to walk is around the town
reservoir near my home. Though we live in a fairly densely populated region,
the reservoir is surrounded by woods and it is common for me to see various
types of wildlife. But the other day I got a real shock when a bear crossed the
path in front of me. He came right out of the woods fifteen feet in front of me, stopped in the middle of
the path and looked me in the eye, apparently decided I was not appetizing enough
for breakfast, and then he got into the water and swam across the reservoir.
In the brief time that he looked at me, I did wonder if I
was about to die. As I quickly breathed the prayer, “Lord, I’m coming home,”
the moment passed and I realized he was not going to charge me. As he swam
away, I was relieved and happy that I would live to see another day. You may
find my little encounter with the bear a bit humorous, but at the moment in
which it happened, it was not funny at all. It could have easily ended quite
differently.
As I have reflected on my experience for a couple of weeks,
it occurs to me that this is one reason why we must live in such a way that we
are always ready to meet Jesus. We cannot deceive ourselves into thinking that
we are young and death is a long way off. Even a walk in the woods near our
home is potentially life threatening. We can either huddle in the basement
hiding from the world, or we can live in such a way that we are always at peace
with God. Living in a state of peace with God begins with knowing Christ as our
Savior. It continues by spending time each day with Him, reading His Word,
sharing our struggles with Him through prayer, confessing any sins we may have
committed and committing ourselves to follow His guidance in our daily lives.
Living in such a way that we are at peace with God brings blessings in this
life, as well as in the life to come.
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Dr. Terry W. Dorsett is a church planter in New England. He is a happy husband, proud father, giggling grandfather, thankful cancer survivor, and the author of numerous books aimed at helping small churches become healthier and individual Christians grow in their faith. You can find his books at:
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