| The Pace of Certainty - article by Joel Hempel
During difficult times, I have found that walking helps me focus my prayers and sort out my thoughts and feelings. Over the years, I have noticed that my gait changes depending on what I’m dealing with. For example, if I’ve been provoked to anger and I haven’t been able to release it, I walk faster as I think through – with God – how to let go of any destructive thoughts that are burdening me and possibly hurting a relationship. If I am experiencing loss or a painful challenge, I move much more slowly, and my prayers are cries of lament. An example of a lament is Psalm 130:1, “Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord; Lord, hear my voice.” The prayer is a plea for grace, and the psalmist is praying adamantly and almost demanding to be heard. Maybe you have had these kinds of conversations with God during times of extreme pressure or anguish. This past Sunday, the Gospel lesson was the story of two followers of Jesus walking back to their home in Emmaus. Some scholars think it might have been a husband and wife. Whoever they may have been, you can imagine their pace. Likely it was slow and aimless, with their heads bowed in silence much of the time when they weren’t trying to figure out what had happened the last few days. Their prayers were likely laments questioning God and his promises and asserting their feelings of being misled by Jesus. The expression “dashed hopes” doesn’t begin to capture the depth of their emptiness. Suddenly, as the story unfolds, Jesus walks up next to them and engages them in a spiritual conversation. The exchange is humorous in its beginning (see Luke 24:13-34). The two disciples are instructing Jesus about the events of the last three days. They are distressed because their hope has been shattered, and they are annoyed that this stranger is clueless. But then, the miracle of revelation happens. Jesus removes the spiritual cataracts from their eyes, and their grief turns to the fire of excitement. And how do you think they walked those seven miles back to Jerusalem? My guess is that their joy could not be contained. With dancing, running, and high-spirited jumping breaking out the entire distance, they gladly traveled back those seven miles to be with their friends and share their excitement. What a difference in pace when we walk in the certainty of the resurrection! Whatever your pace may be when you begin walking your prayers – physically or virtually – keep walking until you can join the psalmist whose lament turned to the certainty of faith: “I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope” (Psalm 130:5). Whatever you face, however freighting or threatening it is, the resurrection of Christ is the promise of victory. Nothing, I mean NOTHING can defeat the one whose hope and trust is in the Risen Lord. | 
