When we last spoke, we talked about how sometimes we use crutches to slow our own progress in finding ourselves. We try to hide because of the shame we feel about a situation, using many different types of excuses. Excuses that keep us from the one relationship we all need. A relationship with Jesus.
SO…
How do we make progress?
One step at a time.
Growing up, I worked at a grocery store, which would be the busiest on the 4th of July. My hometown was a summer vacation spot, and on that day, we would do anywhere from $60,000 to $120,000 in sales. When the lines stretched up the aisles, somehow the young people at the registers would look at me. I mean, I was the shift manager, but I was only 20 myself. In those moments, I would look at them and say, “We can only help one person at a time. Focus on the person in front of you.”
I felt so alive in those moments.
Now, as an educator who works with young, early-career educators, I see them look at me with that same look of overwhelming fear. I remind them, “Do one thing at a time. Focus on what is right in front of you.”
So…
How do we make progress?
One step at a time.
We focus on the moment, hour, or day in front of us.
We face one challenge at a time. We say one prayer at a time.We don't have to face every crutch at once. We face the one in front of us, take it to Jesus, pray through it, and then take the next step. We focus on what is in front of us because the moment that you're worried about, the one that may come tomorrow, only comes if you make it through the one you are facing today.
Looking at what is to come, looking at what we must do, looking at all the sins we have stacked up, looking at all the shame we have piled in our hearts, can feel so overwhelming and insurmountable. It allows doubt to slow us on our journey, slows our relationship with Jesus from growing, and, if we let it, stops us from moving forward.
Forward to healing.
Forward to happiness.
Forward to the loving arms of Jesus.
You may be thinking… “Sure, but you have finished your journey. That is easy to say.”
I am not finished.
My journey, my story, has only just begun. The hurt that was about to come in my story would almost be the end of me. The hurt that I have yet to figure out how to come back from.
The hurt which almost stopped me from wanting to continue on this journey.
So…
My journey continues.
One step at a time.
Still focused one moment at a time. Not all of them are easy.
One lesson at a time.
Forward.
Talk again soon…
