“A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.” I came across that familiar old phrase again today in the devotional I read this morning. It was followed up by “We have to begin somewhere.” I remember thinking, “Yes, and we begin over and over again.”


My next thought was along the lines of “it’s sort of like relapsing – and starting again.” And then I realized I was wandering dangerously close to seriously scary, conservative territory where “good Christians” call the backsliding, degenerate, and fallen back to the straight and narrow path. Once I shuddered a bit and shook off that image, I got back to my train of thought – in a journey of a thousand miles, there are many first steps.

There is, of course, the very first step. Then there’s the first step of each day. We all have to take a rest somewhere along the line or pause to get our bearings. We stop to eat, to pray, to sleep, to talk to other travelers, to ask directions. We stop for all sorts of reasons, not all of them (or even most of them) unfaithful, errant or inappropriate. And when our rest is done, we take another first step and embark on the next segment of our journey. None of us can keep moving 24/7, so what am I to make of this image of relapse in terms of a life of discipleship?

For an addict, a relapse is an incident in which the addictive substance is “used” after a period of abstinence. The goal is abstinence and after a relapse that person can begin again. For people of faith, the goal is to embrace God in some way – to be consciously aware of their connection to God and to actively love God and neighbor and self on a daily basis. A relapse in that case would be a period of disinterest in, or inattention to, the presence of Spirit or a failure to be intentionally conscious of the connection – to ignore God, neighbor and/or self on a serious spiritual level.

I suspect that for most of us, our spiritual relapses are more a habit of inattention rather than intentional disregard. Oh, for some of us, “religion” seems like it would squelch our fun and make us boring and our lives tedious. The only models some of us had were people who said “No” to every joyful, sensual, thing in life as if those things were bad in and of themselves and anti-spirit by their very nature. If given the choice between an attitude that denigrates everything earthly and bodily enjoyable, and one that embraces everything earthly and bodily enjoyable, some will choose to shun spirit and go for the gusto. So, yes, I realize that some folks intentionally ignore the spiritual side of life because they were offered a false choice. True wholeness involves integrating spirituality into our lives so that we love God, neighbor and self. When we can make love, eat strawberries dipped in chocolate and honestly thank God for each sweet moment of both, then we’re on our way to something important! But, I digress…

Rest, or relapse – which describes the periods when you’re not moving forward? Does either one describe where you are in your journey right now? Whichever it might be, remember that you can always take another step – another first step – and it just might end up being a great leap of faith.