One Foot In Front of the Other

On Christmas Eve I watched Santa Claus is Coming to Town with my nephew.  It's a fairly modern classic for little kids, and it contains some great messages.  One of the songs animated is called "Put One Foot in Front of the Other."  It's sung by Chris Kringle and the newly reformed Winter Warlock.  Here are the words:

Put one foot in front of the other
And soon you’ll be walking cross the floor
Put one foot in front of the other
And soon you’ll be walking out the door

You never will get where you’re going
If you never get up on your feet
Come on, there’s a good tail wind blowing
A fast walking man is hard to beat

Put one foot in front of the other
And soon you’ll be walking cross the floor
Put one foot in front of the other
And soon you’ll be walking out the door

If you want to change your direction
If your time of life is at hand
Well don’t be the rule be the exception
A good way to start is to stand

Put one foot in front of the other
And soon you’ll be walking cross the floor
Put one foot in front of the other
And soon you’ll be walking out the door

If I want to change the reflection
I see in the mirror each morn
You mean that it's just my election
To vote for a chance to be reborn

 

There have been times when someone has asked me how I'm doing and I responded, "Putting one foot in front of the other."  During those periods I generally feel that I'm just plodding along, nothing great, exciting, or noteworthy.  However, as the lyrics above would suggest, putting one foot in front of the other is not a bad thing.  In fact, it's usually the way change happens.  So... if you feel that you're only plodding along, putting one foot in front of the other, maybe you should be feeling alright about it.  Dare I say, better than alright?  Putting one foot in front of the other is making a choice to move forward. 

 

I don't know about you, but I'd like for the reflection I see when I look in the mirror to change dramatically.  I'd like to look like Jesus.  But that doesn't happen over night. It is as Eugene Peterson says, a long obedience in the same direction.  Right after Paul exhorts the Philippians to imitate Christ's humility in chapter 2, he says this: ¹² Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, ¹³ for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose."

May God give us the grace to put one foot in front of the other in 2013 and come at least a few steps closer to the people God intended us to be.

O Antiphons - Wisdom

O Wisdom, O holy Word of God,
you govern all creation with your strong yet tender care:
Come and show your people the way to salvation

 Isaiah 11:1-9

¹A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse,
     and a branch shall grow out of his roots.
²The spirit of the LORD shall rest on him,
     the spirit of wisdom and understanding,
     the spirit of counsel and might,
     the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.
³His delight shall be in the fear of the LORD.
He shall not judge by what his eyes see,
     or decide by what his ears hear;
⁴but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,
     and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,
     and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.
⁵Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist,
     and faithfulness the belt around his loins.
⁶The wolf shall live with the lamb,
     the leopard shall lie down with the kid,
the calf and the lion and the fatling together,
     and a little child shall lead them.
⁷The cow and the bear shall graze,
     their young shall lie down together;
     and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
⁸The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp,
     and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder's den.
⁹They will not hurt or destroy
     on all my holy mountain;
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD
     as the waters cover the sea.

Isaiah 11: 2-3 is one of the scriptures said to apply to the first O Antiphon (along with Isaiah 28:29, Proverbs 8: 1-36, and John 1:1-5).  I wonder if it wouldn't be more appropriate to read through verse 9.  Jesus came as the wisdom of God, and in his reign, all things will be put right.  Creation will once again be properly ordered and hurt and destruction a thing of the past.

As the winter solstice approaches and the days grow literally darker, the spiritual darkness of the world seems more evident. Every year by December it seems to me that the world has been sated with turmoil that has built up over the year.  It sags under the weight of all that is wrong and out of place.  Advent reminds us that all is and will be well in the Kingdom where wisdom and righteousness reigns. Come Lord Jesus!