Moving Forward
By: Pastor Lori Champion
True confession: Sometimes road-trips cause me marriage issues… My husband makes me navigate, knowing that I am directionally challenged, even with directions! How many times have we missed big turns in life, while Siri keeps yelling “Re-route”, “Turn-around!”, or “Abort mission!”
Millions of people followed Moses out of Egypt on a road-trip to the Promised Land that God himself had planned. It was a two-week journey that turned into 40 years. I wonder what Heaven’s conversation was like, seeing the children of Israel stuck in this never-ending traffic circle. Then God had enough and said to them, “‘You have circled this mountain long enough.” (Deuteronomy 2:3)
As we embark upon another new year, our desire should not be that we just circle the sun, but that we move forward and arrive at the promised land that God has for each of us.
If we are going to move forward in 2023:
1. We must grow ourselves into our desired future.
Success doesn’t make you; it reveals you. Those who are generous once they have money, were generous when they had little. Those who are rude once they reach the top probably had well-hidden attitudes before they were promoted. I am fully convinced that God not only orders my steps (Psalm 37:23), but He orders my stops and sometimes my traffic circles. He is more concerned with my holiness than my temporary happiness, and His growth plan for me involves tests of my character. As a good instructor, He allows us to circle back and retake tests that we don’t pass.
When I end up at the wrong destination, its likely I’m the one who made the wrong turn (which happens to everyone.) But there are some who keep taking the same wrong turn, over and over again… Cycles of bad decisions, toxic relationships, and drama follow them no matter where they go. They say it’s always someone else’s fault, yet they are the common denominator. We find ourselves stuck in the traffic circle, whether it was by self-inflicted decisions, or by God’s testing process.
Going back to the Children of Israel story, I’ve often wondered, of the millions of people who were experiencing this road trip gone wrong, did not one of them think, “We’ve passed this same landmark several times”? Did no one feel the need to stop the madness and re-route? They were children of God but were being detoured by their past years of slavery. They were unable to speak up, strategize, or change course. They didn’t have a winning mentality when it came to their future.
Paul says, “… But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:13-14
What do you need to forget? What mindset, behavior, pain, or shame need to stay behind so you can move ahead?
2. You’ve got to travel with the right people.
There are lunch friends, and then there are vacation friends. Who is on the trip of life with you? Have you ever thought it was a great idea to go on vacation with people only to find out that when you spend a lot of time with them that they are “A LOT!”?
I’ve had my own share of healthy (and unhealthy) conflicts and conversations with the people I’ve allowed on the journey with me. One time we were on a trip with some of our best friends, and she was playfully making fun of her husband, but he didn’t think it was funny. So, I gave her a gentle love-kick under the table. She knew it was my way of saying, “maybe you should back off”. She took it light-heartedly, and announced, “Lori is kicking me under the table, so I better stop!” She has since then done the same thing for me. A gentle love-kick in the pants when I was being a wimpy leader who needed to address issues courageously.
Hopefully, you have people around you who have navigated the rough roads of life and who have permission to give you a loving kick.
It’s a new year; it’s time to stop circling and start seeing the future God has in store. Remember, it’s above and beyond your imagination! (Ephesians 5:20)