On Friday, Nancy and I went to Metea Park to walk. We went to the bottom of the sledding hill and started on the trail. 75 minutes later, we ended the trail, 15 yards from where we started.

If the point of the walk was getting to a destination, we were horribly slow. 15 yards in 75 minutes.

Of course, a trail walk is actually about the length of the trail. In 75 minutes, we probably walked about 5 miles, right? that would be a good healthy pace.

On Friday, we might have walked a mile and a half. Maybe.

But what if the point of our walk was something else?

During that time, we were away from our computers. We saw no one. We sat on a bench and looked at the creek. We heard birds. We heard each other.

Sometimes the point of a walk is the changed lives that happens during the walk.

Jesus took his twelve disciples on exactly that kind of journey. It starts in Bethsaida and ends in Capernaum. (Mark 8:22-9:33) That’s a distance of about 4 miles along the shore of the Sea of Galilee. It would be a beautiful walk.

Instead, they travel almost straight north, about 35-40 miles. And then they travel back. 80 miles on foot to go 4 miles.

Mark tells us that for long stretches of this trip, Jesus kept the disciples away from people, because he was teaching them. Matthew tells us lots of stories around this time, a majority of which are about strengthening the disciples’ faith.

During that trip we read about the first two times Jesus tells the disciples he will die, about Peter saying that Jesus is the Christ, three disciples seeing Jesus Elijah and Moses, a couple healings. It gave them a focus and a dread.

Four miles from A to B.