I came across a great quote today by a lady called Gail Godwin. It seems she is a writer of short stories.
“There are two kinds of people, one kind, you can tell by looking at them at what point they congealed into their final selves. It might be a very nice self, but you know you can expect no more surprises from it. Whereas the other kind keep moving…They are fluid. They keep moving forward and making new trysts with life, and the motion of it keeps them young. In my opinion, they are the only people who are still alive. You must constantly be on your guard against congealing”
Reading this, I immediately thought of the story of Lot and his family escaping Sodom. Genesis 19 v 1-38. The angel warned Lot they must not look back at the city. Verse 26. You know what happened. Lot’s wife couldn’t help herself. She glanced back at where she had come from and became a “pillar of salt”. She congealed.
There is both a literal and figurative message in this story.
How easy it is to give up and settle. To live in tolerable discomfort, when with a little more forward momentum, life could improve.
Certainly, over this last decade I have found moments where forward movement has seemed impossible, for I was taken out at the knees in a business venture gone bad in 2009. I was destroyed. KO’d.... Mentally, spiritually, physically and economically. Only in the last few years does it feel like I have been able to catch my breath.
Maybe you have been in the same position? How is it working out?
Popular culture loves to tell the story of the hero who recovers his fortune and wins the girl, but you seldom hear of the men who have been wiped out with one mortal blow to never resurface again. We don't like talking about that part as they died where they fell; their bodies picked over by vultures and their bleached bones litter the ground.
By God's grace, I’m one of the lucky ones; I was badly wounded and left for dead in that stinking, hot desert of ruin and despair.
Death, in those early years almost seemed preferable to the journey ahead, but duty and personal responsibility to family kept me crawling forward, an inch at a time. At first I was on my belly, but 14 years later I’m upright, albeit with a distinct limp. I’m permanently scarred. Over these years, just when I thought I could go no longer, there was always some divine intervention. New opportunities and kind people appeared giving me just enough to get me further on my journey.
Popular culture loves to tell the story of the hero who recovers his fortune and wins the girl, but you seldom hear of the men who have been wiped out with one mortal blow to never resurface again. We don't like talking about that part as they died where they fell; their bodies picked over by vultures and their bleached bones litter the ground.
You must not stop - you must keep the momentum pressing forward even if an inch at a time. Create small functional goals and complete them. It might be enough to launder your bedsheets and put good food in your fridge. Find small repeatable ways to create order and stability in the chaos. Once established, don’t surrender this territorial gain easily.
These days, I think little about past mistakes. It is painful and pointless. Maybe that is how I made it out of the desert alive - I just kept looking to hills (Ps121) and pressing onward despite the misery in every step.
One of the vain pleasures of youth is to “dream big”. I don’t dream as much anymore. Sure, there are hopes for the future which are continually being described and refined. I’m happier leaving the outcome in God’s hands. Is this fatalistic? Perhaps, but experience has shown that life is 99% forward movement, grind and obedience and when the 1% happens, it is spiritual intervention and things move really quickly.
Keep shuffling on with eyes looking to the hills. - Be prayerful, faithful and ready. Just at the intersection of feeling like you have nothing left to give and God’s at appointed time, a spiritual and metaphorical helicopter will swoop down to take you to the next waypoint. While on board, there is sure to be a period of restoration, patching- up, re-tooling and a new mission brief.
The journey is not supposed to end on a beach somewhere, as much as we think we want this. Like Pilgrim’s Progress, the target is the ‘Celestial City’, whatever the hardships or discouragements, there is work to do in the meantime. Some years you will crawl, other weeks you will fly, but the secret is to keep on, pressing on. Never give up. Don’t look back. Eyes to the hills.
Psalm 31 v 23 and 24
23 Love the Lord, all you his saints!
The Lord preserves the faithful
but abundantly repays the one who acts in pride.
24 Be strong, and let your heart take courage,
all you who wait for the Lord!
Picture taken from - from flickr
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