Four years ago I downloaded a step counter onto my phone. It almost immediately felt ill-fated: within days I had a bad flare-up of sciatica, and by the end of the week I could barely walk to the end of the road without being in acute pain. For the first few weeks I counted myself lucky if I got anywhere near halfway to the app's otherwise achievable daily target of 6,000 steps... then gradually, slowly, as the pain began to subside, I began crawling towards 4,000, then 5... and finally, finally - oh joy!, the app started congratulating me with stars for achieving the magic 6k!
With such an inauspicious beginning, it took me a while to realise that the app also set cumulative goals in miles. I almost didn't register that I'd been congratulated on my short hike or my Roman holiday, but then, a couple of weeks later, I discovered I'd unwittingly walked a marathon! To Edinburgh next, then London to Paris (135 miles), before 'walking' to other continents. Tokyo... Boston to Philly (280 miles)... various destinations in the US and Latin America... then on to the other side of the world, to Sydney and Perth. Finally, I walked from Cape Town to Cairo (1120 miles), and crossed the Sahara Desert (1200 miles). And then, having run out of terrestrial destinations, the app plunged me on a 3950 journey to earth's core!
I arrived there the other evening, almost without realising, were it not for the sudden shower of stars, cheers and congratulations. (The app, I have to say, is extremely affirming and encouraging, which is a great motivation). But I barely had time to rest at the heart of this planet, before the counter declared I was now in space, walking the 4220 miles to the moon. And then, once I've got there (only 265 miles to go!), it looks like the rest of our solar system awaits, from the closest planet to the furthest. And then? The app doesn't like to reveal more than a few future goals at a time, so I can only wonder... Will I end up walking to the sun? And then...? As the distance to heaven cannot be measured in miles, will I be heading instead to a far-flung galaxy? Or will I simply begin to make return journeys?
Will I, like copious love, go to the moon and back?
But what I do know is that deeper than earth's core, further than the furthest galaxy and wider than any circumnavigation; unmeasured and unmeasurable in miles or leagues or any other units, is the unconditional, uncontainable, all-embracing love of God. With God we are truly loved to the moon and back... and back again... and again, and again... into unfathomable infinity... Calling, and challenging us, to a vaster, wider, all-embracing love of our own.
And with this Love we don't need to walk 4,000 miles or more to attain it - not even 4 or 4,000 steps! It is within us and around us, in people and places; in kindness and service, generosity and selflessness. This Love is in the heart of the world, but not buried in earth's core - it's too alive and dynamic for that; too much in love with loving us... well past the moon and back.
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