One of my favorite actors is Dick Van Dyke. I can use the verb “is” since he will turn 99 years old this coming December. At age 95 he was asked by an interviewer “What is your secret to such a long and healthy life?” to which he replied with his world-famous smile, “Keep Moving.”
Indeed, those two words come to me often now when I so easily can talk myself out of exercising. His career is amazing, and I encourage you to check him out on Wikipedia because you just won’t believe all he has done and continues to do! He read his memoir on Audible books in 2011 at age 86!
Something he said in his memoir has stuck with me: “Ok, we need three things in life: something to do; someone to love; and something to hope for!” I absolutely love that mandate for purpose! I also am confident that those three “things in life” correspond truly with the life of a Christian. Could this be any easier?
“Something to do” are the marching orders which Jesus gave the disciples just before he ascended back to heaven. His words are for us over 2,000 years later: go, teach, baptize! Spread his gospel so that all the world will know God and turn from evil. Keep Moving gets us off the couch, using our gifts and knowledge to teach, and being thrilled when a new believer is baptized into the newness of the Christian life.
“Someone to love” points us to our relationship with the Lord, every day of our life! If we stop and really think about who the Lord is, there is only and always love in our heart. God first loved us, we don’t even have to think about it: we have someone to love, every minute of every hour of every day! And the true joy about love is that God has given us human beings whom we get to love here on hearth! Keep Moving to that person God has called us to love! And then find another! And another!
“Something to hope for” is surely the easiest of VanDyke’s threefold life purpose for we Christians. Our hope is focused on spending eternity with the God who created the universe and flung the stars into the sky! We cannot begin to really understand what eternity will be like, but knowing it is there for us gives us undying hope! Keep Moving in hope which motivates us every single day!
But what if we Keep Moving and we sometimes, somehow, lose our way? That’s when the powerful words of The Merton Prayer keep us on track, focused on God and not ourselves. “Therefore, I will trust you always, though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.” Maybe the words of my favorite “Mary Poppins” actor just might help me stay focused, get up off the couch, and Keep Moving!
Leave a comment, if you wish, regarding this post or how you discovered The Merton Prayer and why it is important to you.
You will find The Merton Prayer and more at https://themertonprayer.com/
[NOTE: If your organization, church, or school would like a workshop/presentation on The Merton Prayer please use the contact tab and let me know! I can Zoom all over the world and have done 90-minute, 3-hour, 5-hour, weekend, or five-day workshops/retreats.]
The Merton Prayer 