Not Going Anywhere?

By Janet Morris Grimes –

Stuck. Drifting aimlessly. Going nowhere fast. Maybe going nowhere at all. Three steps forward. Two steps back. Or is it four?

And since I am stuck, accomplishing nothing, I take a look around. I no longer recognize my surroundings. How did I get here? And where is ‘here,’ anyway? Is this even the right path? Am I lost? And if so, why am I the last to realize it?

I am supposed to be somewhere. Somewhere else. Anywhere else. Accomplishing something. I am sure of it.

But I am here. Stuck. Is it getting darker? What’s that animal noise I hear in the distance? Oh wait, it’s getting closer. I should run. But where? And to whom?

How did this get to be my journey? And why am I having to travel this road, wherever it is, alone?

Stuck. I hate that feeling. Mainly because I might be the one to blame.

By following the same patterns that led me to that place, to this place, I end up with the same results. My current surroundings frighten me, so I go back. Like the Hebrews, yearning for a past where they knew what to expect. But their past required them to be a slave. They overlooked that part in their flight from the unknown.

Perhaps that’s why their journey took 40 years instead of 40 days. Two steps forward. Three steps back. I’m certain that’s not the way God mapped the rescue effort.

They were unwilling participants in their own rescue.

They were stuck. Shame on them. Shame on me.

As it turns out, the Hebrews and I aren’t the only ones who suffer with this problem.

The disciples wandered a bit as well. They doubted. They fought among themselves to be the favorite. They thought like humans, instead of like the spiritual beings Jesus was developing them into.

They bumbled around, like me, the last to figure out what was happening to them.

Bless their hearts.

It is through this bumbling around that we can learn from them. How not to do what they did. Or rather, how to do what they ended up doing. They learned. Eventually.

In John, Chapter 6, the story is told in this way. “Later that evening, the disciples walked down to the sea, boarded a boat and set sail toward Capernaum. Twilight gave way to darkness. Jesus had not yet joined them. Suddenly, the waves rose and a fierce wind began to rock the boat. After rowing three or four miles through the stormy seas, they spotted Jesus approaching the boat walking mysteriously on the deep waters that surrounded them. “I am the One. Don’t be afraid.” Jesus spoke to the disciples.

“They welcomed Jesus aboard their small vessel, and when he stepped into the boat, the next thing they knew, they had reached their destination” (John 6:16-21 The Voice New Testament).

Perhaps they should have invited Jesus into their vessel much earlier in the story. That had to be a long and exhausting three or four miles of boat-rowing.

Maybe that’s what’s missing when we are stuck. Not going anywhere.

We need to welcome Jesus into our vessels much earlier in our journeys.

Or better yet, never leave home without Him.