One Step - The Title's Inception

Taking one step at a time has always been a struggle for me.  

Practically, I like to dig in my heels and stay put.  Even the smallest steps necessitate some sort of change: change in circumstances, surroundings, emotions, relationships, ideas, communication, interaction, etc.  My husband, parents, brother, relatives, and friends can all testify to the fact that I have never been one to deal well with change.  The fact that I succumb to nostalgia much too often also contributes to my heel-digging.  I see the past through rose-colored glasses.  In other words, I “have a tendency to forget the things [I’m] supposed to remember and to remember the things [I’m] supposed to forget” (Del Tackett, The Truth Project).  The past is comfortable, and I don't like the feeling of moving too far away from it.  Thus, I often have to push myself to take steps of any sort.    

Mentally, I try to fly instead of taking one step.  I think through as many possible scenarios (usually the worst-case ones come to the forefront), options, methods, outcomes, consequences, and reactions as I can.  I am a planner, I like to know what is coming, and I like when plans go how they were meant to go.  Unfortunately, this kind of thinking is overwhelming and often betrays a lack of trust in God.  It causes me to worry, to stress, to try to control the uncontrollable, and to miss what is happening in the present.

The more life and change I experience, the more I learn the importance of taking life one step at a time.  Not all change is bad; in fact, it is necessary for any type of growth or progress.  My past is not necessarily what I remember it to be, and it is irretrievable anyway.  Focusing too much on the unknown future (or even the “known” future) robs me of today.  As one of the chapel speakers at my school so aptly put it, I am not called to “sit, soak, and sour,” but to grow constantly.  I have no need to fear moving forward, and I have every reason to trust God in what He is doing with my life.  So, I am left with one option: take one step at a time, following the footsteps of my Savior by His power.  This is life.