One Foot in Front of the Other

By Alison Vidal

Have you ever seen the super old (and by old I mean 1970, because to me 20 years before I was born is super old) animated version of “Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town?” You know the one where every character has these weird rosy cheeks and huge, eternally smiling eyes? Well that was always one of my favorites growing up and today I was reminded of one of the songs in that movie. The song is called “Put One Foot In Front Of The Other” and it goes like this:

Put one foot in front of the other

And soon you'll be walking 'cross the floor

You put one foot in front of the other

And soon you'll be walking out the door

You never will get where you're going

If ya never get up on your feet.

Come on, there's a good tail wind blowin'

A fast walking man is hard to beat

If you want to change your direction,

If your time of life is at hand,

Well, don't be the rule, be the exception

A good way to start is to stand

So right about now you might be thinking, “Why is this lady talking about a song from a Santa Claus movie from 1970? It’s not even Christmas anymore.” This week I found out that my grandpa has a tumor in his back and despite having one surgery already to remove it, he will need another to get the rest of it. Last week I had an already fractured relationship with my mom blow up even more, which means a lot of other family relationships are affected too. The past few days I keep asking myself if it’s enough yet. I find myself asking God how I’m supposed to keep going if I keep getting kicked back down every time I manage to get up. After I heard about my grandpa's tumor the first thing that popped into my head for some reason was that song. I know it was God’s way of telling me to brush myself off, that I wasn’t going to feel any peace if I just sat around counting everything that was going wrong at the moment.

It’s easy to get caught up in the situations we find ourselves in and let our circumstances over take us, but we CAN’T do that. To trust in God means to trust in Him at all times, the good, the bad, the painful, and even the confusing.

Psalm 62:8 says “Trust in, lean on, rely on, and have confidence in Him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts before Him. God is a refuge for us (a fortress and a high tower). [pause, and calmly think of that]!”

We have to not only TRUST in Him, we need to have confidence in Him always, and I love the few words at the end of the verse, “Pause, and calmly think of that.” The Bible is telling us to just stop for a second and think about the fact that God is a never-ending refuge for us. Something my pastor says a lot is “life isn’t always easy, but God is always good.” I’ve been repeating that to myself a lot the past few days. I don’t know what situation you find yourself in today, and I don’t know what kind of things life is throwing at you, but I do know this: God is here to be your refuge, your fortress, your high tower. You might not think that you’re able to put your feet in front of you and keep moving, but lean on God and trust that He’ll keep you moving. Just put one foot in front of the other. 

Psalm 9:9 

                        “The Lord is a shelter for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble.”