A Walk Towards Renewal By Dr. Teresa Moon

What a Walk By the Lake Reveals

An ordinary walk for me usually involves multitasking – phone calls, podcasts, audiobooks. I like to see a lot happen in a hurry. I’m wired for productivity.

Today’s walk is different.

Walking and Seeking

I am reading through the book Feed My Shepherds by Flora Slosson Wuellner. She suggests taking walks with no agenda but to seek God. I need God, his rest, and renewal.

My hosts recommend the walking path around the lake behind their home. So, on Sunday morning, before church – but after coffee – I head toward the lake. I tell myself I will distinctly focus on my very clear purpose. To seek God and his rest.

In this season, I feel like my life was a runaway train – and not on the right track! My schedule is overflowing with critical issues, conversations, and conundrums. During every task or appointment, I feel guilty about all the people I am NOT talking to at that moment and all the problems I have NOT yet resolved. 

Beholding the Moment

I arrive at the walking path and see a glistening view of the water. It looks like a long way around the lake. It is not clear how long the path is. I turn right, intending to walk a distance and retrace my steps rather than take the loop all the way around the lake. I don’t need that much time to seek God.

Within minutes, I spot a walker heading toward me from the far side of the lake. He looks an awful lot like a guy I see at church who lives in his car with his dog. He lumbers toward me. “If he can do this, I can do it.” I re-determined to make the entire loop around the lake.

The First Bend

As I round the first bend, I marvel at the water:  emerald green and glassy, calming to look at. How nice it would be to sit on the bench next to the walking path and soak in the sun and the scenery. But I am walking to seek God. Pursuing whatever sign God has for me, I speed around the next turn. It is good to be on such a spiritual journey.

Following Wuellner’s suggestions, I look at every tree to see if there was some sign in it for me. I notice every bird, and I look at the clouds. Now, a couple is walking toward me. Were they friends? Mother and son? I feel for my phone in my pocket. A conversation like theirs would make this walk productive. Scrolling through my address book, I recall my purpose – no purpose, only to seek God. I put my phone back.

Approaching Halfway

On the backside of the lake, a little over halfway around the loop, I pass a jogger. As I near him, I pick up my pace. I suddenly realize how lazy I must appear to onlookers, meandering along a path while they were legitimately exercising! I turn the next corner and remember my purpose again. Slowing my walking and my breathing, I sense it was much windier on this side of the lake. The air is frigid, and the left side of my face is alternately stinging and numb. The water here is choppy, and the sun has disappeared behind the clouds.

I feel perturbed and tell God as much. This was my morning walking all the way around the lake – with no word from him. I saw no signs or wonders. No sacred symbols in the trees, or birds chirping spiritual messages, or cloud codes to decipher. Nothing. I did my part. What had been the point of this spiritual exercise if there was no word from the Lord embedded in it?

He Breaks the Silence

I turn left, then right, taking the path away from the lake toward my host’s home. In the same way you judge others, you will be judged. “What? Who had I judged?” Along with Matthew’s words in the gospel, the image of the first walker I had passed flew into my mind.

Yikes! I had compared myself to him – a total stranger. And somehow, I felt superior in my own ability to complete my mission. So many other comparisons came to mind: colleagues for whom I perceived myself as a role model, and the leaders around whom I felt inadequate. There were the successful fundraisers, coordinators of big events, and parents expecting me to help their kids pull it together. Had I truly seen and valued each of them?

Yearning for Conversation

There is the walking, talking duo that makes me feel like I should call someone. I want a conversation with someone who would give me insight and perspective. I hear James’ words. “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him”. I came to commune with God, but instead I was eager to settle for human wisdom. I did not trust God to give me wisdom directly. Yet, he did, and he does. I receive God’s wisdom most often when I depart from my routine; when I leave the noise of so many voices and messages. 

Discerning the Moment

I am catching on now. I think about how I had sped up by the jogger. “You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you!” There are so many decisions to make; so many people to answer to; so many critical issues to resolve. My unfixed thoughts swerve from seeking God to attempting to keep up with others. I think of some of the people I had tried to keep pace with over the years. It was exhausting.

 His Restoration Plan

“He restores my soul. “I want restoration my way, different from the promise in the Psalms. I plan for productivity. God does not restore me in accordance with my do more, talk more, plan more style. “He leads me beside still waters.” That is what he does. I can’t calm the waters, or life – for myself or anyone else.

I am nearly back to the starting point of my walk, sensing a strange mixture of conviction and contentment. God spoke to me. The Creator of the Cosmos met my need – a need I didn’t know I had. Renewing my mind transformed me. I used to think Paul was telling the Romans just to read more when he wrote that. But today, I knew the source of all life, truth, and wisdom renewed me – personally and directly. I experience transformation on an ordinary walk around an ordinary lake with an extraordinary Father.

Dr. Teresa Moon, founding President and CEO of the Institute for Cultural Communicators, is an internationally-recognized seminar speaker, education consultant, author, and leadership coach. Each year, she travels around the world, equipping students, teachers, and parents to become “cultural communicators” and helping Christians prepare to speak as extraordinary, authentic communicators.

The place where learning, growing, and community are only one click away. September 1 – October 31, 2026. Join the Journey!

Now is the time to submit a proposal to serve as faculty at the Outcomes Conference 2027!

Join the CLA Community and unlock exclusive benefits!