I have not blogged in a while. And to be honest…it is because I have not felt like it.
I will sit down to read my Bible and my mind will wonder to other matters that seem more pressing. I will try and write in my journal or blog and not a word will appear on the pages or computer screen. I will start to pray and before I know it, several minutes have passed and I have only uttered an incomplete thought.
I have had trials in my life…but to be completely transparent with you, I have not encountered anything that has made me feel paralyzed before. Perhaps paralyzed is not the word I should use…how about STUCK? I feel like I am moving, trying desperately to go somewhere…move on…move up…move anywhere…but it seems that I stay in relatively the same place.
This was brought to my attention one morning in April as I was sitting outside reading. I heard a sound. It took me a while to figure out where the noise was coming from, but my eyes were eventually drawn to the roof near where I was sitting. A paper airplane was on top of the roof. My son, Trey, had been in a paper airplane making frenzy for several days and we were finding them EVERYWHERE!!! On beds, on top of the cabinets, in the laundry and even in my car. Trey had thrown a paper airplane on top of the garage and it was STUCK. It was moving and shifting with the light breeze, but it could not get down. It could not soar the way it had been created to do.
Have you ever felt STUCK??? Please tell me I am not the only one!! You have this great momentum to start something, to take a risk or pursue a dream. All is going well - you are soaring through the air as if you are fulfilling your destiny. Then, before you even realize the momentum has slowed down, you find yourself STUCK on a roof somewhere and you’re not sure how to get down. You’re not sure how to continue flying…or even if you should try!
There are moments when we encounter difficulty in our lives, or bad news and it causes us to question our “flight path”. It is easy to believe that if you are doing the will of God that automatically means “smooth sailing” through life. Yet that is not always the case. Paul was put in jail, Esther was forced into a harem, Ruth was widowed and homeless and David’s best friend Jonathan was killed. Even good movies and excellent books often revolve a story around someone encountering a trial and rising above.
Let me encourage you today as you are planning your summers, jobs, volunteer opportunities and school again in the fall - while you may find yourself, at times, feeling stuck…don’t stop moving!!! Don’t give up the original desire to fly, take risks and pursue your dreams. Everything wonderful and worth while is painstaking at times! And believe me…I do not say that lightly!!!!
“May He give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed.” Psalm 20:4
THIS WEEK - READ ALL OF PSALM 20
