Have you discovered the amazing benefits of walking? I remember hearing somewhere at sometime that walking was possibly the best long term exercise that we can do. Then, one day on Instagram – I clicked on a video about the innumerable hidden health benefits of walking. Now all of a sudden – boom! My feed is overloaded with this topic.

Check out these snippets:

Walking helps regulate emotions – The natural bilateral eye movement, the sun on your skin, and the activation of your frontal lobe helps you process emotions. Especially difficult emotions. You’ll see everything differently after a walk because your body just made sense of what your brain couldn’t. Walking is your body’s way of resetting your nervous system, your cortisol levels, and in the process slows down racing thoughts. Don’t make a decision before you walk on it.” Dr. Nicole LePara

Walking helps problem solving and creativity – An easy way to get unstuck is to get up and take a walk. We generate more creative ideas during and after walking outdoors – and even on a treadmill facing a blank wall. Divergent thinking rarely happens when we’re tethered to a desk. Moving our bodies frees our minds. Adam Grant – Researcher

Walking can be therapy – One walk today rewires your future. Walking is the closet thing we have to a wonder drug.” Dr. Caroline Leaf

Walking can be a simple, long term, and life-changing habit!

Recently I was reading a book about the life of Jesus called Beautiful Outlaw. The author pinpoints this topic as he talks about Jesus’s humility:

Remember – Jesus wasn’t faking it when he took on his humanity. . . What about the humility of simply getting from here to there by means of walking?

We read that Jesus “left Judea and went back once more to Galilee” (John 4:3) and don’t pause to wonder – how far was that? More than 70 miles. A two- to three-day journey on foot, pushing sunup to sundown. If you bypass Samaria – which most Jews did – it was a four-to-five-day trip of 120 miles. When was the last time you walked three or four straight days? We pass right over phrase such as “Jesus went up to Jerusalem” (John 2:13), as though it happened quick as we read it, like he ran across the street for a quart of milk. Bethany to Cana is roughly sixty miles; back down to Jerusalem is another forty-five plus. Jesus is making these trips all the time. He who once rode “on the wings of the wind” (Psalm 104:3) is now getting around only as fast as his two sore feet will carry him. Hours and hours, for days and months upon end, just . . . walking. (pages 109-110)

For context, I googled how far the distance is from downtown Dallas to downtown Fort Worth. It is a little over 33 miles. If we walked from Dallas to Fort Worth and then back again – we would still have 4 miles left to equal the distance from Judea to Galilee of 70+ miles. I get upset and impatient just driving in those areas! Plus, think about the regional middle eastern heat he had to walk in. He deserved the finest stallion with a chariot. At least a horse and cart. Why not a donkey? Yet, in his humility – he chose to walk.

More than likely, this was uninterrupted time to communicate with The Father. Perhaps it was a chance to build up his physical strength and endurance for the difficult times ahead. He had an opportunity to experience what the poor who had no means of transportation lived every day. Everything he modeled we can also imitate by choosing to take on the habit of walking.

Conclusion: What would it look like starting a small habit of walking for us? Make it easy to begin with, 10 – 15 minutes. How about leaving the technology at home (yikes!) and using the time to pray, think, and create? If we travel – it is super easy gym equipment to take!

Blessings,

Dave 🙂