Moving Forward

This past Sunday, I had the privilege of preaching at the First Rock Baptist Church's Women's Day program in Southeast, Washington, DC. The title the Lord gave me was, "Moving Forward" based on Colossians 3:12-13 which focuses on forgiveness. The message encouraged the women of First Rock to move forward past the bondage of unforgiveness and into the freedom of forgiveness.

The congregation received the message heartily and everyone left the service excited about "moving forward." So, why is it that only a few days later it seems that countless little nagging obstacles keep rising up to keep me from moving forward with some of the "round tuits" (See Oct. 6, 2009 blog, "THIS is the Day") I'm trying to get to?

Why? Well, I'll let you in on a little secret. Preachers always have to live what they preach about--whether the message is about triumph or struggle. In fact, one of the reasons we know the Bible is real and not a fairy tale is because the struggles of the men and women in it are not cleaned up or edited out. We see them enjoying the thrill of victory and enduring the agony of defeat.

Don't worry, I'm not facing any major struggle or defeat, just having "one of those days" when no matter what I try something rises up to set me back. I was on my way to a funeral this morning when my car decided it didn't want to go with me. Thankfully, I was able to get it to the mechanic, get a loaner and make it to the service early.

I needed to send some photos to someone and I took the time to patiently sort through the photos to select just the right ones, downloaded them and sent them off--or so I thought. They never made it to their destination and are still lingering in cyberspace right now as I write this blog.

I asked my children to give mommy some "quiet time" so I could finish some writing I had been putting off. You know what "quiet time for mommy" means to young children--"just come back two minutes later." And they did. And two minutes after that, and two minutes after that...and, well, you can figure out the rest.

There were several things I tried to do on the computer to improve my efficiency, because I decided that today was the day I would finally "move forward" in my computer skills. But, after nearly an hour of trying to navigate the tools that were designed to make me "more efficient", I counted the cost and decided to trade efficiency (speed) for effectiveness (hey, it gets there).

While all of those obstacles were small individually, they began mounting up and frustrating me to the point that I wanted to just throw my hands in the air, and wave them like I just didn't care.

But....I didn't. I did what I told the congregation at First Rock to do. I kept moving forward. I began to imagine each hurdle as a literal hurdle that I was well equipped to jump over, just like an Olympic athlete. I remembered that He who began a good work in me will perform it until the day of Christ Jesus (Philippians 1:6), which reminded me that God is the one pushing me onward and upward and no matter what the goal, no matter what the obstacle I will reach the goal. And, so will you. Don't let any obstacle--from unforgiveness to daily frustrations keep you in bondage.

Look to Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith, and no matter what just keep--Moving Forward.

BNcouraged!

Rev. Karen