Overview:
The author discusses how a FitBit tracker, a Christmas gift, has helped her to become more aware of her daily physical activity and encouraged her to take more steps every day. She then draws a parallel between the physical steps we take and the “steps of faith” we take in our spiritual lives. She suggests that a device similar to a FitBit could track our daily steps of faith, providing tangible reminders that would encourage us to take more steps and strengthen our faith. The author concludes by emphasizing the importance of taking steps of faith, no matter how small, and how these steps can have a significant impact on our spiritual growth and maturity.
One of my favorite recent Christmas gifts is a FitBIt tracker. Like so many others, my goal in using the FitBit was to track my daily steps, improve my health and possibly lose weight.
What I didn’t realize until I began using it was that it tracked more than just how many steps I
took each day.
Once I downloaded and opened up the application on my smartphone, I was amazed at how many other things it tracked including how many miles each day I walked, how the number of steps I took translated into calories burned as well as how many minutes I was active each day.
Since I’ve never been a very physically active person, the information is especially
helpful and keeps me focused on my health goals. Even more exciting for me is that when I
reach my daily step goal, I earn badges that show up on my FitBit dashboard.
One thing I realize by wearing the FitBit is that I actually take more steps every day than I thought. And by knowing how many steps I take, it encourages me to take even more steps every day.
After feeling the vibration on my wrist when I reached my daily step goal one day, I thought about how cool it would be if there were a device that could track our daily steps of faith. Like the FitBit activity tracker, it could help us see how these daily steps of faith impact the other areas of our lives.
For example, we could make goals for daily steps of faith and when we meet those goals, our FaithBit would let us know in some tangible way (text message, wrist vibration etc).
Having these reminders would help us see that we actually take more steps of faith every day than we realize. Perhaps by knowing how many steps we take (big and small), we’d be encouraged to do take even bigger steps of faith and see that the more steps of faith we take, the stronger our faith becomes.
Just like the seemingly small steps we take every day physically have potentially large impacts on our overall health, the similarly small steps of faith we take every day can also potentially have large impacts on our spiritual health.
These steps of faith impact our spiritual maturity, spiritual growth, the level of our spiritual maturity as well as the depth of our spirituality. One daily step of faith might be as simple as being consistent in our time of prayer and devotion.
Matthew 17:20 says:
“… Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
Matthew 17:20
This scripture reminds us that it is important to take steps of faith no matter how big or small. It’s not the size of the step that you take, it’s that you take a step of faith and continue walking in your faith journey.
Shewanda Riley (Aunt Wanda), PhD, is a Fort Worth-based author of “Love Hangover: Moving
from Pain to Purpose After a Relationship Ends” and “Writing to the Beat of God’s Heart: A Book
of Prayers for Writers.” Email her at preservedbypurpose@gmail.com or follow her on Twitter
@shewanda. You can also listen to her podcast at www.chocolateauntiepodcast.com.