Saturday was a shitty day.
Friday was supposed to be a day off, the first day of a three-day weekend. Instead, I ended up not only coming into the office, but working well past midnight. Saturday, I paid for it.
I woke up well after the sun had risen and spent most of the day mindlessly doing useless crap. I’m at that age where if I have a particularly late night, it takes me about 3-4 days for things to settle back to normal. So, a three-day weekend where I was hoping to work on my side hustle, has become one day back at the office, followed by two days of recovery.
As the sun was setting in the sky, I decided to drag my ass to the gym. Mostly out of a desire to salvage what would have otherwise been a waste of a day. Even by my low standards, it was not a good workout. But as I was going through the motions, I kept hearing the same phrase repeated again and again:
“Get up and walk.”
The phrase came from The Nine Laws, a book by Ivan Throne. Ivan is a fascinating man, and I had the pleasure of meeting him a month ago in Florida. At the age of 4, he completely lost his hearing from meningitis. One day his sister, tired of his pity party, told him to “Get up and walk” to the dinner table. It was an early turning point for him and marked an obsessive determination to overcome any adversity.
This phrase also reminds me of another older story. In ancient Jerusalem, there was a man who was crippled in his legs for 38 years. He was lying by a hot spring in the hopes of being able to enter the waters when they bubbled. According to local folklore, an angel would descend into the pool, and the first who entered when it bubbled would be healed of their infirmities. But every time he struggled to enter the pool, someone beat him to it.
One day, the Son of God walked past the man. He stopped, looked at the cripple, and asked one simple question: “Do you want to be healed?”
What an obvious question! Who wouldn’t have simply exclaimed in reply, “Please, yes!” But instead of answering Him, the cripple began whining and offering excuses for his condition.
But the Lord ignored the man’s self-pity. Instead, He cut the man short with one simple command: “Rise, take up your bed, and walk.”
And the man did as He commanded. After 38 years of disability, he rose, took up the bed he laid on, and walked away.
Much later the Son of God would ascend to Heaven, after completing the mission of Divine Redemption for which He laid down His life. But following His departure, the Holy Spirit came down to earth, to dwell within the hearts of all who follow Him. It’s the Holy Spirit who keeps whispering to us every day, “Get up and walk.”
Today was not the worst day in my life. I’ve had worse days earlier this year. Six years ago. Fourteen years ago. Twenty years ago. Nevertheless, I still wanted to quit today, were it not for that Voice inside me quietly insisting,
“Get up and walk.”