Walk With God

Scripture

For we walk by faith, not by sight. (2 Corinthians 5:7)

My name is Kristian. I was baptised Roman Catholic. I grew up going to Greek Orthodox Church. But I hardly ever considered myself a Christian for the first 30 years of my life. The word Jesus felt like a bible-bashing slogan from the pits of America. But when the Israel/Palestine war exploded on October 7th 2023, I found myself immersed in the question of God, properly, for the first time in my whole life. My rage at what I was witnessing dragged me into the conversation. I sympathised with the Arabs. My nephew and sister-in-law are Jewish. And I feared this war would begin to brew war inside my own family. Up until this point, the actual topic of religion itself was very much split from my spirituality. I was largely agnostic, with a thirst for the secret knowledge. However, to be a practising believer of Christ was never on my agenda. I believed in a God and that he had created the world, but I didn’t believe God was still influencing my life in the present day. I believed in ‘the universe’ or a ‘lifeforce’ but not a personal father who cared about me deeply. Everything was ephermal. Little was personal. How much all of that was about to change. After two weeks of rabbit-holing the history of religion to try and make sense of the conflict in Gaza, my brain froze and my heart sank. My arguments for or against either side of the conflict stopped. My analysis halted. No amount of mental comprehension or socio-political judgements was adequate for the pain that sat on my heart. My own soul wanted a union with God. And for the first time in my life, I got on my knees and I prayed. I prayed for answers to my own life’s problems. Kristian wanted to come home. I prayed to God to help me understand the chaos of this world and most importantly the chaos of my own life. God answered clearly and promptly. “Walk with me” he whispered. And the very next day, I did just that. I began day-long walks with God because that’s what God told me to do. I would walk full-time for as long as God wanted. For the following 40 days, I averaged aorund 40kms a day. Walks in mother nature with father creator. God as my parent, partner and pal. And with that humbling first prayer, my relationship with the world changed forever. A son had come home.

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