Editorial June 28, 1993 Issue

Walking with God

Richard C. Bergenheim

According to the Scriptures, Enoch's son Methuselah lived for 969 years. Suppose Methuselah retired and moved to the shore when he was sixty-five. Now stretched before him, as a friend once noted, are 904 years of fishing and beachcombing and trying to make ends meet on his social security benefits. How long do you think it would be before he got tired of the whole thing? Fortunately, there was no advertising then to teach Methuselah that his health might fall apart after a few years. The experience of Methuselah's father illustrates that God sustains man. Enoch increased in spirituality. His daily communion with God spared him the ravages of mortality, for his awareness of God's presence was so strong that the Bible talks of him as walking with God. Doesn't this provide all of us with food for thought?

The Bible refers to long life as a blessing, so what are termed advanced years must hold out something far more significant than merely enduring many days. The book of Psalms speaks of going "in the strength of the Lord," of awaking "with thy likeness," and of dwelling "in the house of the Lord for ever" with "goodness and mercy" following us all the days of our lives. Fear, loneliness, and illness are extinguished when we make a point of walking with God ourselves. There is no retirement from serving God, from glorifying Him, from being His witness. As we recognize this, we also realize that there is no retreat of God's goodness from our lives either.

Those who, recognizing their divine rights, consciously rely upon spiritual strength and steadfastly turn to the faculties of Soul will suffer no diminution of vitality and activity. They are working out the problem of being and learning the fundamental spiritual purpose of life. Here or hereafter this is what we all must do. Life is richer when we spend our time now learning to walk with God. It is not a question of simply adding church activities to our lives; it is learning that life is spiritual. The spiritualization of thought increases our experience of Life, God. Eternity, not mortality, rules our day.

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