Walking the path

(3-minute read)

When I was first on my own and started dating, it was completely different from when I was in high school. I had a good job and could afford to take a date to a fine-dining restaurant. I quickly realized we were both trying to fit in, and there was a bit of pretense. We didn’t get to know each other as well as I had hoped. Going to a movie or a concert had their own problems in getting to know each other. I wasn’t yet conversationally comfortable talking to a girl on a date.

Back then, most major stores were located downtown and closed much earlier than they do today. After the stores closed, it was common for people to walk down the streets window shopping. The stores put great effort into displays in the windows that would get people to return and shop during store hours. These displays were particularly elaborate during Christmas and drew crowds of families.

One night, after taking a date to a movie, we decided to walk two blocks to a downtown restaurant. We joined the other window shoppers and slowly walked those two blocks, examining each window display. Things on display would bring up reminders, and we would tell stories from our past. By the time we got to the restaurant, my date was no longer just an acquaintance but was becoming a friend. It worked so well that window shopping became common on a first date when I could work it out. A couple of times, there was a problem when a date said, “These shoes are not made for walking.” At the time, I had no idea why anyone would buy shoes that were uncomfortable to walk in. I’ve often thought there should be a class in school to teach boys, especially those of us who didn’t have sisters, about girls and some of their strange customs.

On one window shopping occasion, there was an elaborate Christmas display of an entire village, including an electric train. I noticed one house on the town’s edge with an outhouse. When I pointed it out to my date, she said, “We lived in a house once that didn’t have a bathroom, and we had to use an outhouse.” She seemed embarrassed to tell that story, but somehow, it made her more endearing to me. It was just a story from the past and no longer meant anything, but I was touched that she would share it with me. The outhouse story would probably never have come up in a fine-dining restaurant.

Something happened this morning, reminding me of an event from many years ago. Someone I cared a great deal for did a terrible thing to me. When I was reminded of it this morning, those feelings of betrayal welled up within me. Immediately, it was as if my conscience was saying to me, “Let it go; it’s just an outhouse story. It doesn’t mean anything anymore.”

I have been praying and asking the Lord what I could do to know him better. For some time, I’ve felt that the Lord has been saying, “Walk with me.” It is as if he wants to go window shopping with me in my life. Like the fine dining restaurant and movie on my dates, I get to know the Lord much better in the time I spend with him apart from church and Bible study. Spending my day walking with the Lord builds my relationship with him in a far more intimate way.

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